After that, Western WA starts to clear on Thursday, eastern WA on Friday.
Widespread Unhealthy conditions are expected statewide, with all of eastern WA only reporting Very Unhealthy and Hazardous air. Western Washington is littered with Good to Very Unhealthy conditions. Some strong winds are expected today (see areas in National Weather Service maps below) and while this will alleviate the smoke for a while, they also increase fire danger substantially.
Please note that the map of air quality monitors above has been slow to refresh, given the high demand for data. The Dept of Ecology's air quality monitoring data map is a good alternative.
Your efforts are much appreciated and your information, in my experience, is accurate. Thanks
ReplyDeletePost a link to that site please.
ReplyDeleteA link to which site? A hyperlink to the ECY air monitors is included in the post- just click on the text.
DeleteAhh, didn't notice the hyperlink, thanks!!
DeleteI'm curious about how we should be using monitoring data when the monitors generally lag two hours or so. I sent my kid with asthma out yesterday afternoon because my closest monitor read 60 but when it updated, it had been 151 for both hours he was outside. How would you recommend we use the predictions or other tools to make real time decisions? Also thanks for this service. It's so helpfil!
ReplyDeleteHi Katie, a few things to be aware of:
Delete1. The map of monitors above appears to lag 2 hrs because (a) they operate on standard time and (b) report data at the beginning of the hour. i.e. the 10AM- 10:59AM readings are averaged and reported as the 10AM reading. So right now (8:27AM) a timestamp of 6AM would in fact be considered current.
2. As mentioned in my post, the monitoring website have been lagging under load. The Ecology page (link provided) has been reasonably robust and could provide you a more up-to-date reading.
3. You might want to minimize the asthmatic child's outdoor exposure this week. Conditions can be variable within short times and distances, so the fewer surprises the better.
Katie, there are crowd sourced measurements out there. Not as accurate as the official ones, probably with +-20 AQI, but can be crosschecked against officials ones. They don’t have much latency. http://PurpleAir.com
ReplyDeleteI always check the ECY monitor first, but it has always had a timestamp of 2 hours or so behind, sometimes more. I will be in the house this week due to the smoke and asthma. I, too, have also wondered how to use the ECY monitor in real time. Right now, 8:52 am, it says the last received numbers were 6:00 am. Thank you for your help in understanding.
ReplyDeleteSue- copying out my response to a similar question above:
DeleteThe map of monitors above appears to lag 2 hrs because (a) they operate on standard time and (b) report data at the beginning of the hour. i.e. the 10AM- 10:59AM readings are averaged and reported as the 10AM reading. So right now (8:27AM) a timestamp of 6AM would in fact be considered current.
I clicked on the monitor site. I forgot about daylight savings time. Now it makes sense. Thank you!
DeleteI use Purple air as well as a quick check on my phone. I have asthma myself and purchased my own air quality monitor that can be used both indoors and outdoors: https://www.amazon.com/IQAir-AirVisual-Pro-Quality-Monitor/dp/B0784TZFRW
ReplyDeleteThis monitor has been a lifesaver to monitor when it is safe to go outside or when I need to use a N95 mask when leaving my home during this wildfire season. I highly recommend it and it has a useful app where you can monitor the air at anytime!
Could you recommend a good web resource to view real-time or near real-time satellite images of the smoke?
ReplyDeleteThe GOES-East GeoColor product is good enough to see smoke animations anytime of the day (usually about a 30 minute lag): https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/GOES16_sector_band.php?sector=pnw&band=GEOCOLOR&length=24
DeleteThe MODIS platforms pass over at 11 am (Terra) and 2 pm (Aqua) and generally the images are available about 2.5 hours after overpass on Worldview: https://go.nasa.gov/2La21Fm
Thanks you!
DeleteThe sentence that is most important to me appears to have a typo, leaving its meaning a little unclear an I'd rather avoid the assumptions:
ReplyDelete"models suggest southwest winds will [send?] some clean air to western WA by Thursday"
Can this be corrected to match the original intent? Thank you for this wonderful resource!
Thanks for pointing it out. It has been fixed.
DeleteDoes there tend to be any time of day variation? For example are levels any lower at night? Or does it just depend on winds?
ReplyDeleteThe winds are very important. In terms of diurnal variation, though, the warmth of the atmosphere affects the altitude that plumes can get up to. In general, the atmospheric mixing layer is higher during the day and lower at night. Since smoke plumes are generally hotter than the surrounding air, they are buoyant and thus will be injected higher into the atmosphere during the day. As the atmosphere cools, there is subsidence which can increase smoke concentrations at the surface. We often see drainage in valleys, where smoke accumulates and moves down a valley in the cool/dark hours of the early morning.
DeleteI prefer purple air. Gives real time measurements every 80sec or so. And they offer a correction factor that follows AQ and U (whatever that means). Noticed it does lower the readings somewhat with correction factor box checked, but is always higher readings than the NowCast monitor nearby where I live. In my opinion, NowCast is not safe to go by being so far behind in updating actual numbers for current health risks. It's almost 5pm and NowCast last update for my area was 1PM still showing yellow (moderate) near me whereas, two purple air monitors near me are showing unhealthy close to very unhealthy numbers. Lastly, in looking at current outside visual conditions and smelling smoke, I trust purple air readings as quite accurate.
ReplyDeleteI was working outdoors in October 2007, during the "Witch" fire in San Diego County. I wasn't wearing a mask, and came down with inhalation pneumonia. There aren't any drugs to take for it, since it isn't caused by bacteria or viruses. I suggest that ANYONE going outdoors when there's smoke wear an OSHA-approved N95 mask. You'll be glad you did.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking at airquality.weather.gov forecast for north Seattle. They are forecasting surface smoke readings between 800-1000 for tomorrow morning. Does that mean we should expect hazardous air in Seattle tomorrow? For context, right now the reading is 76.
ReplyDeleteI think you mean 80 - 100 micrograms per cubic meter, which is in the Very Unhealthy range. I don't see any scale on their site that goes up to 800. Expect Very Unhealthy air quality in Seattle on Tuesday and into Wednesday.
DeleteStill saying 1000 at 7am. I get this when I enter my 98117 zip for weather forecast and then scroll down to air quality forecasts link near bottom. https://airquality.weather.gov/probe_aq_data.php?latitude=47.6847&longitude=-122.385
DeleteOK that is in micrograms per cubic meter but that forecasted amount is a very large overestimation. This is a common problem in smoke forecast models. Really the concentrations have been in the 80-120 micrograms per cubic meter range, which will likely continue through tomorrow.
DeleteThanks.
ReplyDeleteWhat are you’re predictions for the Olympic NP area Wednesday through Friday? Specifically Port Angeles and Ruby Beach? Is smoke worse as you go higher in altitude? Curious because we’d like to see Hurricane Ridge
ReplyDeleteRuby Beach should be catching fresh air late tomorrow. Port Angeles area has been getting hit by both longer transport from the BC fires and the Vancouver Island fires and it could continue to get intermittent smoke events (though much less severe than currently). Thursday and Friday look good but we do expect smoky conditions in those areas tomorrow.
DeleteMy kids and I are from Seattle but now live on the east coast. We are supposed to come back for ten days starting 8/29. One of my kids has autoimmune issues and other airway issues. Do you have a sense of whether the air will be cleaner by then or is it too soon to tell? Thanks in advance for your response. Someone recommended your site to me as a great resource for tracking the smoke.
ReplyDeleteThe current smoke will have cleared out but it is too early to tell if northerly winds will appear again for Seattle. Check in this Friday or next Monday and we can try to give you an idea of what the winds will be doing.
DeleteIf you had camping reservations for Lake Wanatchee Wednesday thru Sunday would you go Wednesday,or wait it out until Friday? Thank you!
ReplyDeleteLake Wenatchee is less than 10 miles away from a ~40,000 acre wildfire, Cougar Creek. https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6053/ Please see the incident information. While westerly winds should push the Cougar Creek smoke away from Lake Chelan starting Wednesday afternoon, you should still be prepared for smoke in the area due to very close proximity to an active fire. You may want to check with local authorities in the area for a better idea of any road closures or evacuations in the area. For more information, call the Chelan County Emergency Management at 509-667-6863 or visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/CCSOEM
DeleteSorry, that should say Lake Wenatchee... not Lake Chelan.
Delete