U.S. Air Quality

Smoke from La Brea and Lockheed fires spread over California and Arizona

The National Interagency Fire Center reports four new fires: two in California and Idaho. The California Lockheed fires led to the declaration of a state of emergency for Santa Cruz County. NOAA's Hazard Mapping System Fire and Smoke Product, overlaid in Google Earth (top left), shows the combination of La Brea (discussed here the last few days) and Lockheed fires are producing smoke plumes that are covering the counties of Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and good portion of southern California and western Arizona. The smoke of this fires is visible in today's MODIS AQUA RGB true color image (top right, source UW MODIS TODAY). This smoke may have contributed to the high AOD values recorded by MODIS over California, Nevada and Arizona (bottom left, source UW IDEA). PM2.5 concentrations reached MODERATE AQI levels in California and along and south of the Ohio River Valley, while the US eastern states experienced Good AQI levels according to EPA's Airnow (bottom right).