May 25, 2008
Smoke from Mexico continues and ozone is picking up
Memorial Day generally is a good marker for the start of the ozone season. As Amy pointed out earlier this week, EPA has changed its guidance on ozone and PM and while the colors may be changing on the AIRNow plots, the annual cycle of ozone and PM does what it usually does. The left image below is NOAA's Air Quality Guidance on today's ozone forecast. Pockets of high ozone are arising from cities in the southeast and swirling around the Bermuda high which is setting in in that region. On the right, we can see three areas with noticably high smoke and the fires in Zacatecas and Durango States in Mexico are forecast to be coming into New Mexico and Colorado later today.
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We're not able to see through the clouds today to see the fire in Santa Cruz, California. AQUA did give us a good view of those fires in Mexico and there are several along the border of Sinaloa and Durango in Mexico. In the future, we hope to have these events covered by our friends at CATHALAC in Panama who will be setting up the "Mesoamerican Smog Blog", a clone of this site designed to focus on Central American air quality.
Finally, on the right is the view of Baltimore and Washington DC today. It is beautiful here today. Should be a beautiful Memorial Day in the Capital. Good riding for Rolling Thunder, the Iraq/Afghanistan Veterans and those who are thinking of our troops overseas!
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