June 28, 2008
Fires continue, air quality not as bad as yesterday in Northern California and Saharan dust over the Gulf of Mexico
As Amy predicted in yesterday's post, today's MODIS TERRA true color image (below, left) still shows the presence of wildfires in California (305,112 acres burnt according to the National Interagency Fire Center). We can, indeed, observe a wide spread smoke plume mostly contained over the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys. According to a CNN report, the smoke forced the cancellation of athletic events in Northern California and people were advised to stay inside and keep activity to a minimum.
According to this same report, changing weather brought smoke-clearing breezes and brief relief to Northern California today. This can be observed when comparing today and yesterday's mass concentration at the ground (PM2.5 values, below right). By the end of the afternoon, conditions are, at the most, unhealthy for sensitive groups from Fresno to Eureka. Scattered thunderstorms are predicted this weekend over northern California, which could also bring lightning storms similar to the ones that ignited fires a week ago.
 |  |
The Saharan desert dust plume reported in yesterday's post over Southern Florida seems to have migrated further West over the Gulf of Mexico, which induced strong AOD values retrieved from the MODIS-AQUA radiometer (between 0.8 and 1 at 550 nm, below left). According to the GASP aerosol, winds and precipitation trajectory forecast (below, right), the plume could be flowing towards Southern Texas and Louisiana in the next two days.
 |  |
Finally, except for the states of South Dakota and Pennsylvania ("unhealthy for sensitive groups"), the rest of the country shows "good" to "moderate" air quality conditions today around 7 PM .