July 2, 2008
Hazardous Air Quality in California – Fires Continue for Another Day
Air quality conditions continue to be dangerous for residents of northern and central California due to smoke from the numerous wildfires that have been burning for the past 10 days. PM2.5 air quality is in the Code Maroon (Hazardous) range at Auburn, Roseville-Rocklin, Sacramento, and Bakersfield this afternoon. Today’s MODIS Terra true color image for northern and central California overlaid with the 21:00 UTC AQI values (below) shows the Hazardous readings. As we have been reporting the past few days, air quality has improved in many of the regions in California impacted by the wildfires, as can be seen by the Code Green and Yellow conditions in the San Francisco metropolitan area and across the Central Valley. However, poor air quality persists in the Sacramento/Chico region.
Today’s MODIS Terra true color image of the USA1 region (below on left) shows a clear view of the smoke plumes from the California wildfires. The corresponding GASP AOD image (below on right) of Region 9 indicates the high AOD associated with smoke from the fires.
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Sacramento, Roseville-Rocklin, and Auburn residents won’t get any relief from poor air quality conditions for at least another day. California air quality forecasters are predicting Code Red (Unhealthy) PM2.5 conditions in these cities for Thursday.
Across the rest of the country, air quality is mostly in the good to moderate range. There are a few reports of Code Orange (Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups) ozone scattered across the Southeast and Texas, as can be seen in the image below of the 21:00 UTC AQI values for the nation.
