Code Orange PM2.5 Levels Continue in El Paso, TX; Code Orange Ozone Levels in Colorado, Air Quality Action Day Declared until 4pm Saturday
Unhealthy
PM2.5 levels (top left, courtesy
AIRNow) in El Paso, Texas and in New Mexico continued into the early morning hours before returning to healthy levels after 9:00 AM EDT. Moderate (Code Yellow)
PM2.5 levels were reported throughout the day in the Mississippi Valley, Southeast, and southern Plains States regions. Ozone levels (top right, courtesy
AIRNow) reached Code Orange in Colorado. Code Yellow ozone levels were reported in Colorado and Utah. Currently there is Air Quality Action Day for ozone in effect until at least 4pm on Saturday due to a forecasted "Stratospheric Ozone Intrusion" (
Colorado Air Pollution Control Division). This is due to a strong upper level weather system causing ozone from the stratosphere to enter the troposphere and make its way to the surface. NOAA's Hazard Mapping System (HMS, bottom left) reports a large plume of smoke from fires in Mexico over the western coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Moderate
AOD levels due to the smoke were observed in the
MODIS Terra
AOD map (
IDEA, bottom right). This plume of smoke is forecasted to cause
PM2.5 AQI levels to increase to Moderate levels tomorrow (
Texas Commission on Enviromental Quality). Smoke from fires was observed by HMS in Texas, Mississippi, Florida, and Georgia.
Posted by Jaime Compton at April 27, 2012 7:54 PM
