9/27/12 Wildfire Smoke Forecast 0800 PDT

9-27-12 Air Monitor Update 0800 PDT

              

Central Region, Ecology Air Quality Report                  Chelan County monitor locations: Wenatchee- “Hazardous” Leavenworth- “Unhealthy” Chelan- “Moderate”             Okanogan County monitor locations: Omak - “Good” Winthrop – “Moderate” Twisp-  “Moderate”             Kittitas County monitor location: Ellensburg- “Unhealthy” Yakima County monitor locations: Yakima- “Unhealthy for sensitive groups” White Swan- “Moderate” Toppenish- “Unhealthy for sensitive groups”          Klickitat County monitor location: Goldendale- “Moderate”   Eastern Region, Ecology Air Quality Report Blue Mt. Area Clarkston  -  unhealthy for sensitive groups Dayton  -   moderate Walla Walla  -  moderate Palouse Area Pullman  -  unhealthy for sensitive groups Rosalia  -  moderate LaCrosse  -  moderate Northeast Colville  -  moderate Wellpinit  -  moderate

Central Washington Air Quality Report from Forest Service Temporary Monitor locations            Chelan County monitor location: Wenatchee(Confluence Park)- “Very Unhealthy” Cashmere- “Hazardous” Entiat- “Unhealthy for sensitive groups” Okanogan County* (new) Pateros- “Unhealthy for sensitive groups”            Grant County monitor location: Quincy-  “Good”           Kittitas County monitor location: Cle Elum- “Unhealthy for sensitive groups” Klickitat County*(new) Trout Lake- “Unhealthy”         Eastern cont., Ecology Air Quality Report Columbia Basin Kennewick  -  moderate Mesa  - moderate  Moses Lake  - moderate Ritzville  - moderate  Spokane Area Spokane, - Unhealthy for Sensitive groups Liberty Lake - Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups

Another very useful webpage for grab hourly and 24 hour data, Puget Sound Clean Air and their air quality tool: http://airgraphing.pscleanair.org/

Remember the Eastern Washington Burn Ban remains effective through Sunday, September, 30, 2012.

9/27/12 Wildfire Smoke Forecast 0800 PDT

Air Quality forecast, 8AM Thursday 27 September 2012
Issued by Ranil Dhammapala, Washington State Dept. of Ecology

     Wenatchee is back to recording Hazardous air this morning, as is Cashmere. Both these sites have been getting hammered by smoke in down slope winds with some afternoon clearing when the inversion breaks and upvalley winds kick in. Entiat and Pateros (both Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups) also showed the same behavior yesterday. Leavenworth (Unhealthy), Twisp, Winthrop and Cle Elum (all Moderate) showed the opposite trend, increasing when upvalley winds during the day pushed smoke toward the monitors. Trout Lake and Ellensburg (both Unhealthy), Yakima, Toppenish (both Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups), White Swan and Goldendale (both Moderate) all saw an increase in PM2.5 levels when the inversion broke, but experienced some partial clearing later.
      With the exception of Omak and Quincy, none of the other PM2.5 monitors east of the Cascades are recording Good air this morning (the two green dots on the map close to Spokane are CO and Ozone monitors). Little diurnal change in the Columbia Basin sites since yesterday, with a mixture of Moderate air to Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups. Some sites showed a very slight drop during the afternoon mixing, but a slight increase overall. Over the last two days, the Columbia Basin has behaved like a giant bathtub in steady state, where the water (smoke) entering is almost balanced by the amount leaving.
     Light east winds have started in eastern WA and could still bring a little ID wildfire smoke to the Palouse area before Friday night. With strong nighttime inversions, above normal daytime temperatures and light winds, the largest smoke impacts are expected near the fires while the Basin will continue to behave like a bathtub in near-steady state. In general, expect some smoke impacts in the morning and nighttime, with some afternoon clearing in most places. The light east winds could push some smoke further up the foothills during the day.
     Winds are expected to pick up a notch on Friday evening, and models suggest that gradual clearing in most areas is expected to continue through Saturday evening before calm, benign conditions return.

The National Weather Service issued an Air Quality Alert for all of eastern Washington:

http://forecast.weather.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=otx&wwa=air%20quality%20alert
     The Governor has extended a burn ban on all outdoor burning in eastern Washington through midnight Sunday.

 

Ecology Air Quality Monitoring Network Map: https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/enviwa/Default.ltr.aspx

  -note, click on the dots and you can then click on View more information to find out the latest hourly values even if the dot is grey