U.S. Air Quality

Wildfires in the Pacific Northwest Continue to Burn, with Smoke Moving East

Smoke from fires in the Pacific Northwest continue to be the headliner here in the Smog Blog. For example, the Wenatchee Complex fires in Washington state have been burning since September 9, after being ignited by a lightning strike. According to INCIWEB, these fires are 30% contained. The smoke of these fires continue to be the source of high AOD retrievals in the Pacific Northwest. MODIS Aqua images below (AOD and true color/rgb, left and right images, respectively) show the smoke over the Pacific Northwest states. Smoke from these fires was also observed in the southern Mid-Atlantic states, as shown in the AOD and the bottom left "rgb image". Today's lidar observations (bottom right image) show that the smoke is above the planetary boundary layer (PBL). The smoke was observed at heights between 1.5 to 5 km, while the PBL extended up to 1.5 km. Good PM2.5 AQI levels were reported across the nation.