U.S. Air Quality

Good air quality in most of the US; Moderate levels of Ozone stretching from Texas to Midwest

Today the air quality in most of the US was good (ranging to moderate in some scattered regions), with exception to California where the levels of PMs ranged from moderate to unhealthy to sensitive groups around LA, Palm Springs and Bakersfield as can be seen in the EPA map (top,left). Ozone levels were moderate to unhealthy (code orange) in California and from Texas up to Midwest (top,right).

HMS map (bottom,left) shows today what might indicate the end of the burning season in Central America, with only a reminiscent smoke from the past days over the Gulf of Mexico. It also shows smoke over the Great Lakes region, over the Mid-Atlantic and reports a haze over Central Missouri and Eastern Kansas. The smoke could not be observed in MODIS Terra image but some haze could be seen a little further east from what is reported (bottom,right).

Errata: Being curious about the absence of fires in Central America, I contacted the SSD fire team at NOAA and just learned that in fact there were fires but the fire spots were not available in the analysis product in this weekend. So.. sorry to disappoint all of you who were happy about the possible end of the burning season..