Elevated Ozone over Great Lakes and MS Valley; Rapid Creek fire emits large smoke plumes
Ozone AQI levels continue on the elevated trend for the Great Lakes, Southern Plains, Mississippi Valley, and LA Basin today, reaching the Moderate- Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups (Code Yellow- Orange) and even a peak of Unhealthy (Code Red) in eastern Missouri. PM2.5 levels were also elevated in the aforementioned areas, however the majority of these locations peaked within the Moderate (Code Yellow) AQI range (bottom left & right,courtesy AIRNow).
As far as smoke layers streaming over the nation, the HMS team reports remnant smoke juxtaposed to the Canada/US border (from Canadian fires), yet the densest of the observed smoke is believed to be emanating from the large Rapid Creek wildfire over western Montana, which is sending plumes south/southeast toward the Dakotas (bottom left). Today's
MODIS (onboard the Terra satellite)
AOD image superimposed with the RGB illustrates raised
AOD over the area being impacted by dense smoke (bottom right). There were also reports of Saharan dust over northern Florida and the eastern Gulf of Mexico, but due to scattered cloud cover and convection, it was difficult to observe via satellite.
Posted by Alexandra St Pe at July 30, 2012 9:56 PM
