August 28, 2012
Fires continue in the Pacific Northwest. High Ozone in Houston.
The first image below, courtesy NOAA HMS, shows the fire locations across the United States. The red dots correspond to active fires, and the grey areas are plumes. The largest plumes are stretching from the northern California fires and into the central portion of the United States. There are also a handful of fires in the Mississippi Valley that are not producing as much smoke as the California fires. The next image, courtesy NOAA, shows the forecasted maximum 1 hr Ozone (ppb) for the day. Warm temperatures and low cloud cover has made a strong impact on the eastern coast over the past few days. Additionally, the strongest ozone predictions are for the Houston/Galveston area. Notice in the Southeast, the region where Hurricane/Tropical Storm Isaac has been is showing low levels of ozone. This is most likely due to cooler, cloudier air, that is being circulated strongly due to the outer winds of the storm.
 |  |
The first image below shows the GOES Aerosol and Smoke Product (GASP) for today. The image shows a nice look into the smoke pouring out of the Yankee Hill,CA and Klamath Falls, OR fires. Also, it shows the massive smoke plume moving towards the Plains states.
The two sites I mentioned previously continue to have hazardous AQI values from the smoke and fires in the area. The next plot shows the hourly particulate matter (less than 2.5 microns, which corresponds to heavy smoke and burnt particles).
 |  |