June 26, 2009
Improved PM2.5 and Ozone Conditions/ Smoke/Haze over TX / LA / KY / TN / AK
Today Code Yellow (Moderate) PM2.5 levels (top left, courtesy of AIRNow) dominated much of the southeast of the US, however, a few code orange PM2.5 levels did appear in OK/AK/SC. Ozone levels (top right, courtesy of AIRNow) were better today; there were no code red levels reported in the US. However, areas that reached into the Code Orange (Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups) levels were parts of southern California and scattered areas from Midwest through the southeastern parts of the US as shown in the loop below.
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MODIS Terra true color image shows a large area covered by haze/smoke (below) over TX / LA / KY / TN / AK. The MODIS Active Fire Mapping Program’s large incident map reports two fires in east Texas and one in Alabama shown here.
NOAA’s Hazard Mapping System (HMS) reported smoke over the areas listed above, shown in the HMS map below. There is also smoke reported by the HMS map over central Canada that extends into northern Montana.
For tomorrow, air quality forecasters are predicting Code Red (Unhealthy) ozone levels in Visalia, San Bernardino, and Banning, CA.
