U.S. Air Quality

Many fires across the country, smoke over the Northwest from Washington to the Great Lakes area; haze over the Carolinas, Georgia and offshore from the Northern East coast

Today's TERRA AOD map (top, left) shows strong light extinction over the Northwestern US with especially high AOD values over British Columbia and Washington. The TERRA RGB image shows in deed some haze near Seattle but also in Oregon and Northern California up to the great lakes area and especially around Toronto (top, right). The HMS map and the SSD fire team at NOAA report a broad area of smoke from the Northwestern US/ Southwestern Canada to the Great Lakes area. This could be due to the numerous fires in British Columbia with some contribution from fires in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana, ... According to the National Interagency Fire Center, thirteen new large fires were reported: one each in Wyoming and Idaho; two each in New Mexico and Arizona; three in California; and four in Oregon. Four large fires were contained: one in Oregon and three in Arizona.

Strong AOD values are also shown offshore from the Northern East coast stretching down to Maryland. A closer look at the RGB image (top, right) shows some haze hovering over the Atlantic mixed with clouds.

Finally, the Carolinas and part of Georgia also show some significant AOD values. A closer look at the corresponding RGB image (bottom, left) clearly shows some hazy conditions. This could be the reason for the strong "moderate" air conditions over the area on today's EPA AIRNow's PM2.5 map (bottom, right). Let's note other regions of strong concentration of "moderate" conditions like in the Northern West or East coast. On another hand, the ozone levels are, at the most, "moderate" but in very few areas of the country.