August 5, 2012
Weekend edition: Damaging wildfires in Oklahoma; Widespread haze across the Great Lakes
Haze covers much of the Great Lakes region but the RGB (below, left) is somewhat confusing since there also is overlying cirrus cloud. The AOD retrieval below should be corrected for cirrus so there is widespread haze underneath those clouds. The AOD retrieval is from the LANCE webmapping service and one thing I would change in LANCE would be to insert a color bar on each of the color overlays. It may be there somewhere but doesn't show up in my browser.
In Oklahoma, nearly 25 homes have been destroyed in a wildfire near Luther, Oklahoma. The high temperatures and drought have caused the Governor to ban outdoor burning. The police believe the fire in Luther was actually arson.
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I noted tonight that IDEA is not responding and we will check on that. It may be from my end since this post originates in Berlin where I am at the International Radiation Symposium. (No, I don't normally stay up to 4:47AM - it is 10:47 here). Also AIRNOW did not seem to post on August 4, so we are running on fumes from here.
NOAA's Smoke Optical Depth product shows smoke in Oklahoma and in the west from the fires in Idaho and Montana (below right), but does not show smoke in the Great Lakes. It appears that that may be just good old summer anthropogenic haze from the hot weather. This is likely the haze from the warning that Patricia noted in her post on Friday evening.
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Update: 20:00 CET August 5, 2012
Still early for this Sunday in the US, but there is only one area of the US that is showing elevated ozone and that is near San Bernadino in the LA Basin. There are a few moderate PM AQI readings from Lake Ontario up the St. Lawrence River towards Maine. This is the residual of the haze seen earlier.