10/01/12 Wildfire Smoke Forecast 0800 PDT

10-01-12 Air Monitor Update 0800 PDT

Central Region Ecology Air Quality Report   Chelan County: Wenatchee- Very Unhealthy Leavenworth-  Good Chelan- Moderate Okanogan County: Omak - Good Winthrop – Good Twisp-   Good Kittitas County: Ellensburg- Unhealthy Yakima County: Yakima- Moderate White Swan- Good Toppenish- Klickitat County: Goldendale- Good   Eastern Region Ecology Air Quality Report Blue Mt. Area Clarkston  -  Good Dayton  -   Good Walla Walla  -  Good Palouse Area Pullman  -  Good Rosalia  -  Good LaCrosse  -  Good Northeast Colville  -  Good Wellpinit  -  Good

Central Washington Air Quality Report from Forest Service Temporary Monitor Locations Chelan County: Wenatchee(Confluence Park)- Unhealthy Cashmere- Very Unhealthy Entiat- Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups Okanogan County: Pateros- Good Grant County: Quincy-  Good Kittitas County: Cle Elum- Good Klickitat County Trout Lake- Unhealthy         Eastern cont., Ecology Air Quality Report Columbia Basin Kennewick  -  Moderate Mesa  - Moderate Moses Lake  - Moderate Ritzville  - Good   Spokane Area Spokane - Good Liberty Lake - Good

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

The emergency burn ban has continued until OCTOBER 7^th, 2012 at midnight

 

10-01-12 Wildfire Smoke Forecast 0800 PDT

Air Quality forecast, 8AM Monday 1 October 2012
Issued by Ranil Dhammapala, Washington State Dept. of Ecology

Cashmere and Wenatchee are reporting Very Unhealthy air this morning, while Ellensburg and Trout Lake are reporting Unhealthy air. The latter two are on the rise. Entiat and Maple Falls are reporting unhealthy for sensitive groups. Sites in the western Columbia Basin and Yakima valley are mostly reporting Moderate air while all other sites statewide have Good air. Smoke at ground level did not drift too far east into the Columbia Basin yesterday. The smoke impacted sites showed morning and nighttime increases and a little afternoon clearing.

Today should see moderate winds with smoke impacts in communities near the fires. Enjoy the above-normal temperatures while they last, because a strong cold front dropping into eastern WA this evening will herald a shift to cooler weather through the rest of this week. Alas with little or no precipitation, except for the North Cascades and far NE parts of the state tonight. Winds will pick up ahead of the front so smoke clearing should commence this evening. The cats among the pigeons
however are (i) the risk of rapid fire spread along the east slopes of the Cascades due to strong winds and low relative humidity, and (ii) blowing dust across the Columbia Basin on Tuesday, restricting visibilities and causing travel headaches.

Cool air will continue to flow into eastern WA from the north on Wednesday but winds should relax. Another frontal system is expected by Thursday, but with little or no precipitation.

In summary, wildfire smoke impacts are likely in and slightly east of the eastern foothills of the Cascades today, but should be much less over the next few days than we have (sadly) become accustomed to. No wildfire smoke is expected in the eastern parts of the Columbia Basin, or NE and western WA.

The National Weather Service issued an Air Quality Alert for all of eastern Washington through noon today:
http://forecast.weather.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=otx&wwa=air%20quality%20alert

 

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

  - when browsing the monitoring web page, 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)