May 26, 2009
Moderate Air Quality in California and the Midwest; Smoke in Mexico
Air quality was mostly Code Green (Good) today, with some scattered areas of Code Yellow (Moderate) conditions in the Midwest and southern California, as seen in the loops of AQI values for PM2.5 and ozone (below).
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The big weather-makers in the nation today are a stationary front running west-to-east across the Ohio River Valley and Mid-Atlantic, and a cold front running north-to-south along the Plains states. The position of the fronts and their associated cloud cover are shown by today’s MODIS Aqua true color image, overlaid with this afternoon’s synoptic analysis and AQI values (below, in Google Earth). Along with generating flooding rains, these fronts are helping to keep air quality in the Good range for much of the eastern portion of the country.
Seasonal fires continue to burn in Central America. Today’s NOAA Hazard Mapping System (HMS) Fire and Smoke analysis (below on upper left) indicates the fire “hotspots” across Central America and associated smoke over Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico. The smoke is evident in today’s MODIS Aqua true color image of Mexico (below on right); it does not appear to be impacting air quality in the Gulf Coast today, but it may be contributing to Code Yellow PM2.5 readings in south Texas. The Navy Aerosol Analysis and Prediction System (NAAPS) aerosol model 5-day forecast for Central America and the Caribbean (below on lower left) suggests that smoke will continue to affect air quality in Mexico for the next five days.
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