U.S. Air Quality

Code Orange (AQI) in California might persist during the weekend

Today NOAA HMS team (top, left) reported smoke over South Dakota, Texas and Gulf of Mexico but due to the cloudy conditions in most of the US (top, right) it wasn't possible to identify them.

Ozone levels (bottom, left) in California improved while in the North/Northeast it came back to moderate levels even reaching unhealthy conditions (code red) in New Hampshire in the afternoon. Today's PM2.5 map is the bottom right corner.

EPA is forecasting unhealthy air quality for sensitive groups (code orange) in the West for the weekend: San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Fresno, Bakersfield, Riverside, and San Diego are among the cities included in the forecast. Ozone levels are likely to increase again in California due the sunny weekend to come.