May 11, 2009
Santa Barbara Fire Subsides; Heavy Seasonal Burning in Central America Continues
Air quality in the nation today continued much the same as yesterday: mostly Code Green (Good), with Code Yellow (Moderate) PM2.5 conditions along parts of the Gulf Coast and Code Yellow and Orange (Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups) ozone in southern California.
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The good news is that the Santa Barbara wildfire appears to have subsided. There is no evidence of smoke in southern California in today’s MODIS Terra true color imagery (below, with AQI values overlaid) – the bright white feature along the coast is the marine layer cloud deck, not smoke.
Widespread seasonal fires continue in Central America today – the NOAA Hazard Mapping System Fire and Smoke Product (below on left) shows an almost continuous coverage of red “hotspots” across the region. As Ray said yesterday, it looks like all of Central America, north of Costa Rica, is on fire. Today the smoke isn’t being advected north as much as it was yesterday, with only a few locations in south Texas reporting Code Yellow PM2.5 conditions. The smoke is evident over Mexico in particular in today’s MODIS Terra true color image (below on right, overlaid with U.S. AQI values).
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