August 4, 2008
Smoke from Fires Continues in Northern California and Upper Mid-West
Air quality across the nation was mostly good to moderate today, with some scattered pockets of Code Orange (Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups) ozone in the Southeast, as seen in the AQI loops for PM2.5 (below on right) and ozone (below on left).
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The fires in northern California and the upper Mid-West that we have been talking about for the past week are continuing to burn. Today’s Hazard Mapping System (HMS) Fire and Smoke Product (below on left) indicates the extent of the smoke plumes from the wildfires. Today’s MODIS Terra AOD image (below on right) shows the elevated levels of particulates associated with the smoke plumes in northern California/Oregon and the border of North and South Dakota. As seen in the PM2.5 AQI loop above, hourly PM2.5 values in northern California were in the Code Orange and Code Red (Unhealthy) range today due to the influence of the wildfires.
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The northern California and Oregon fire plumes can be seen clearly in today’s MODIS Terra true color image for the USA1 region (below on left). Substantial amounts of smoke are concentrated in the area of the fire in California, while a plume is billowing out to the northeast into Oregon. HMS reports that the plume on the border of North and South Dakota, seen in today’s MODIS Terra true color image from the USA2 region (below on right), is a mixture of smoke and haze that is drifting eastward.
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There is another tropical cyclone in the news tonight: Tropical Storm Edouard. Edouard is currently centered in the northern Gulf of Mexico, about 105 miles south of LaFayette, LA and 160 miles east-southeast of Galveston, TX. A current GOES infra-red image of Edouard (below) shows the relatively small circulation of the system. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) is forecasting that Tropical Storm Edouard will make landfall near the Texas-Louisiana border around noon on Tuesday. NHC expects that Edouard will be very near hurricane strength when it makes landfall in about 12 hours, so if you live in the area, make appropriate preparations.
