Europe Model: The Smoke Has Cleared

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

The Smoke Has Cleared

The media is generally full of gloom and doom, so here is some good news. The skies of the Northwest are nearly clear of smoke, with most of the fires either out or highly contained.

Consider some of the NASA MODIS imagery. Yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon's image, shows little evidence of smoke, except for a hint over the far NE section of the State.

Compare that to 2012 on the same date (below). Smoke land. Temperatures have been relative normal the past month, with occasional rain moving in. And very few thunderstorms. It has made a huge difference.

Even the California fires have declined substantially, with very little smoke evident.

The latest air quality data for throughout the State shows good air quality everywhere (green dots). This should certainly impress our Chinese visitors.

The view from the SpaceNeedle cam at 10:40 AM shows a finely defined Olympic Mts. in the distance.

To get an idea of the improvement, Here is the particulate levels (PM2.5 small particles for this summer from Seattle (blue), Omak (red), Winthrop (green) and Spokane (orange). The really bad air quality (PM2.5 over 100) was limited to two weeks in August, after lightning started fires after a dry, warm summer. The situation is hugely better now.

During the next few days, a weak front will be moving over us, bringing cooling and more rain to the Cascades and western WA. So expect air quality to remain good for most.

The biggest air quality issue will now switch to woodsmoke from fireplaces and wood stoves, which settles into low spots during cool, autumn mornings. And, of course, there are those Volkswagen diesels....