U.S. Air Quality

Pacific Northwest Fires Continue

In Air Quality News, Ozone maintained a relatively low to moderate concentration in the Rocky Mountain States and the Pacific Southwest region while PM reached heavy and dangerous levels In the Pacific Northwest as PM shows a slight elevation in the Great Lakes region, the Mississippi Valley and much of the eastern border of the Plain States (AirNow, top left). In the HMS image below (top right), we see that the fires and dense smoke that have been running rampant in the Pacific Northwest were the main contributors to the heightened levels of PM observed today. Smoke was most dense in Washington, Montana and Idaho as its spans east into the Rocky Mountain States and further into the Great Lakes region. As seen in the EOSDIS image below (bottom left) much of this smoke is highly concentrated toward Central US while smoke more south towards Texas and Mississippi is more remnant smoke. AOD Trajectories (bottom right) show smoke continuing to move east into the Atlantic Ocean where an area of light density smoke is already present.