September 30, 2008
Smoke Along the Gulf Coast
Moderate PM 2.5 based on hourly AQI values from AirNow was scattered across the eastern half of the United States today, although there were few measurements that reached Code Orange. Ozone reached Moderate levels along the Texas and Louisiana coasts, with a few isolated areas of Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups.
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NOAA’s Hazard Mapping system noted smoke over much of the gulf coast and Texas, as well as a few locations in California and Idaho:
Although it is partially obstructed by clouds, this smoke can be seen on land and off the coast of Florida’s Panhandle as well as portions of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina in the Terra True Color Image below. However, the AOD information from IDEA is less clear, as the higher AOD readings are adjacent to clouds, where high AOD readings are less likely to indicate PM or other Air Quality events as the reading may be influenced by the cloud:
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This smoke is likely to remain at relatively low altitudes in these states for at least the next day until it eventually transitions over the Atlantic coast, based upon predictions from IDEA’s 48-hour aerosol trajectory forecast , shown below.
