U.S. Air Quality

Weekend edition: Canadian fires continue to pour smoke southeastward

The fires in Northern Alberta continue to be sources of large amounts of smoke that are now affecting the Canadian east coast. The MODIS image (left) shows the location of several of the large fires and the band of heavy smoke which had moved north to Great Slave Lake and is now draining southeasterly across Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Smoke has arrived in the Great Lakes and the Egbert sunphotometer is showing optical depths of 0.4 at 500nm wavelengths. Unfortunately, we do not have permission to use the Egbert lidar profiles which would help constrain the vertical extent of the smoke. The GASP loop shows the motion of the smoke.

Air quality continues to the poor across the nation and unhealthy for sensitive groups readings are seen in CA and CO. We have had a week respite from the heat and very bad air quality here in the midAtlantic but with the forecast for 100F temperatures on Wednesday, air quality advisories are starting to pop up here for another busy week.

At least three fires are burning in Northern California: one in Placer County, one cluster of fires near Clear Lake and one in the Trinity National Forest (below left). UPDATE: July 15, 2012: Over much of the US cloud dominates the satellite picture. There is still smoke streaming down across Lake Winnipeg towards Lakes Superior and Huron. But so far most of the Canadian smoke is not impacting the lower 48 states.