8-9-14 Air Quality Report

Smoke Synopsis:
Today should see sunny skies with light and variable winds.  Expect the diurnal upslope/downslope pattern to be evident. At the same time, temperatures will increase through Monday.  The decrease in winds will reduce transport of smoke up and out of the valleys during the afternoon.  The diurnal valley winds should cause smoke to concentrate again in the valleys downslope of the fires.  Fires are now widespread across entire region with the potential to contribute to a regional smoke haze that will be evident in many cities in the Columbia River Valley.
Air Quality Outlook:
Site	Saturday August 9, 2014	Sunday August 10, 2014	Monday August 11, 2014	Comments
Colville	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate
Wellpinit	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate
Omak	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate
Malott	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate
Brewster	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate
Winthrop	USG	USG	USG
Twisp	Unhealthy	Unhealthy	Unhealthy
Chelan	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate
Entiat	Unhealthy	Unhealthy	Unhealthy	Impacts should drop off after 10 AM each day
Plain	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate
Leavenworth	USG	USG	USG
Wenatchee	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate
Ellensburg	USG	USG	USG
Yakima	Good	Good	Good
For detailed information about the color coded air quality categories, please see:  Washington Air Quality Advisory for Smoke and Other Fine Particle Air Pollution En Español:  El Índice de la Calidad de Aire de Washington para Humo y Otra Contaminación del Aire causadas por Partículas Finas
Warning: These data have been obtained from automated instruments and have not been subjected to a quality assurance review to determine their accuracy. They are presented for public awareness and should not be considered final. Conditions such as power outages and equipment malfunctions can produce invalid data.
1 Since wildfires often occur in remote areas, air monitoring equipment may not be available. The following table provides a quick method to assess air quality in your area. For more detailed information you can go to the following site: http://www.deq.state.or.us/aq/burning/wildfires/visibility.htm

8/8/2014 Duncan fire continues to be active, and smoky.

When the plume from the Duncan fire (up the Entiat River Valley) goes high into the atmosphere, much of the smoke can be transported out of the area if meteorology is favorable.  But when it stays low the smoke has been traveling into Entiat or Chelan.  The weather for this upcoming weekend indicates that smoke may stay closer to the ground and could cause air quality to degrade in many areas of the Columbia Basin.
This image was taken on August 8 at 3:30pm by the webcam available at this link:  http://www.fsvisimages.com/fstemplate.aspx?site=okwe1_fire1  (The camera at this site typically only shoots pictures between about 9am and 4pm.)

What do all these numbers and colors mean?

There is a lot of information about air quality available on the internet and it can be confusing to understand what it all means.

How we’re calculating air quality

The amount of smoke at any one place can change continuously during a day. At times smoke may be highly concentrated and visible and other times not.

We can measure the smoke levels in an area hour by hour and even down to minute by minute if we choose to. However, the EPA sets many health standards that are based on 24-hour averages. So in order to compare our measurements to the EPA standard we need to use 24 hours of data. We take that data and use a color ramp that is based on how close the measured values are to the EPA standard.

Because we use 24-hour averages there may be times when smoke may be heavy and visible in an area but the air quality map displays good.

How Washington and others calculate air quality

It is possible to use an hourly measurement with the previous 23 hours to calculate a 24-hour average but that may not be a good predictor of the future.  And there are other more complex calculation schemes that use data from the previous hours to predict the future 24-hour average.  The Washington air monitoring site uses this type of method when it colors the dots on the map on their website: Washington Air Monitoring

On Washington’s map the value for the current hour can be found if you click on a colored dot and look at the bottom left of the window that opens.

Please keep in mind that we are not making a judgment whether one approach is better than the other.  We simply want to help you understand what you are looking at and why maps may show different levels of air quality.

Daily forecasts

For the past two weeks an Air Resource Advisor has been assigned to forecast the 24-hour average each day.  These forecasts are prepared for a number of sites and posted daily to this blog.  The ARA looks at forecast meteorology, forecast fire activity (including planned burn-outs) and past monitoring data and uses their experience to produce forecasts.  The daily outlooks, and other good information on smoke and health, can be found on this blog.

Feel free to post any questions you have on these or other smoke issues to the blog.   

8-8-14 Air Quality Report

Smoke Synopsis:
Expect similar conditions today as yesterday – westerly flow and sunny.  Expect smoke on active fires to lift out of valleys and be transported east with the transport winds.  An upper level trough is moving through the area today which will cause the surface and transport winds to die down tomorrow.  Starting tomorrow night and into Sunday expect the diurnal upslope/downslope pattern to reestablish itself.  The decrease in winds should reduce fire activity and plume rise, which along with the diurnal valley winds could cause smoke to concentrate again in valleys downslope of the fires.  Fires are now widespread across entire region with the potential to contribute to a regional smoke haze that will be evident in many cities in the Columbia River Valley.
Air Quality Outlook:
Site	Friday August 8, 2014	Saturday August 9, 2014	Sunday August 10, 2014	Comments
Colville	USG	USG	USG	Being affected by Devil’s Elbow fire smoke.
Wellpinit	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate
Omak	USG	Moderate	Moderate	.
Malott	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate
Brewster	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate
Winthrop	Good	Moderate	USG
Twisp	USG	USG	USG
Chelan	Moderate	USG	USG	Could be affected by Duncan fire smoke.
Entiat	Moderate	USG	USG	Could be affected by Duncan fire smoke
Plain	Good	Moderate	Moderate
Leavenworth	Moderate	USG	USG
Wenatchee	Moderate	USG	USG
Ellensburg	Moderate	USG	USG	Cle Elum Ridge Fire smoke likely to affect town
Yakima	Good	Good	Moderate
For detailed information about the color coded air quality categories, please see:  Washington Air Quality Advisory for Smoke and Other Fine Particle Air Pollution En Español:  El Índice de la Calidad de Aire de Washington para Humo y Otra Contaminación del Aire causadas por Partículas Finas
Warning: These data have been obtained from automated instruments and have not been subjected to a quality assurance review to determine their accuracy. They are presented for public awareness and should not be considered final. Conditions such as power outages and equipment malfunctions can produce invalid data.