Air quality forecast, Wednesday 9 July 2014

Air Quality forecast, Wednesday 9 July 2014
Issued by Ranil Dhammapala, Washington State Dept. of Ecology

As Janice noted below, the Mills Canyon fire near Entiat is creating a lot of smoke. Satellites have detected a fire near Quincy but it appears much smaller than the one near Entiat. The last few frames of the visible satellite imagery on Tuesday night suggest that smoke from the Mills Canyon fire blew across Entiat, Ephrata and Moses Lake. The passage of a dry front this morning may have helped prevent a worse buildup of smoke, even though some smoke still lingers on.

Weather and air quality forecast models suggest that smoke is likely to impact these areas again later today & tomorrow. Smoke will also blow further into the Columbia basin on Thursday. Wenatchee and East Wenatchee might see some smoke early Thursday AM & night. Winds turn east on Friday and Saturday, which might bring some clearing to the Basin, but will push smoke up against the Cascades. Chelan and Stehekin could potentially see some smoke on Friday & Saturday.

In spite of east winds, the smoke from the Mills Canyon fire is not expected to impact Western WA over the next few days.

The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning, as dry, windy conditions develop in the Columbia basin now through this evening. These can cause fires to spread rapidly.

http://forecast.weather.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=otx&wwa=red%20flag%20warning

We are expecting a strong ridge of high pressure that could lead to a 4+ day hot spell starting Saturday. Does not bode well for fire safety nor smoke dispersion.

Smoke dispersion forecasts will be made available as necessary.

Thanks.

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Ranil Dhammapala, PhD.
Atmospheric Scientist
Washington State Department of Ecology
P.O Box 47600, Olympia, WA 98504-7600
Tel: 360-407-6807
Fax: 360-407-7534
Email: ranil.dhammapala@ecy.wa.gov
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