News and opinion about wildland fire
Above is NOAA’s forecast for the distribution of wildfire smoke at 6 p.m. PST November 13, 2018. Much of Central and Northern California has severely compromised air quality and is in the “unhealthy” category.
Below is air quality data from AirNow.gov for Tuesday November 13, 2018:
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized5 Comments on Wildfire smoke map November 10, 2018 
Above is the forecast for the distribution of smoke from wildfires at 6 p.m. PST November 10, 2018.
UPDATE at 11:20 a.m. PST November 10, 2018:
At 11:20 a.m. PST Saturday the air quality north of Sacramento was Unhealthy to Very Unhealthy.
At this time the air quality web site AirNow.gov is down. Perhaps because so many smoke-affected people are trying to access it.
The map above shows the prediction for the distribution of wildfire smoke at noon PST November 9. Click on the map to see a larger version.
Below is a satellite photo taken Thursday, November 8 showing heat from the Camp Fire in red and the smoke being blown to the southwest, mostly north of San Francisco.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized2 Comments on A physician describes “smoke induced depression” in Oregon 
The Mail Tribune posted a video about how in recent years the occurrence of wildfire smoke seems to be more frequent in Oregon.
Some of the short term effects of smoke are well known, such as how it can affect people with pre-existing respiratory conditions, but not much research has been completed on the long term effects on residents or firefighters.
In the video, Doctor of Nursing Practice Matt Hogge introduced a condition called smoke induced depression.
“You see a lot of people coming in with mild mental health concerns”, he said, “that might not have those in their day to day life, but the anxiety of not being able to go outside and do the things that they are normally able to do really affects some people’s moods.”
Wildland fires produce significant air pollution, posing health risks to first responders, residents in nearby areas, and downwind communities.
The existing air quality monitoring hardware is large, cumbersome, and expensive, thereby limiting the number of monitoring stations and the data that is available to help officials provide appropriate strategies to minimize smoke exposure. They can’t be easily moved to the latest areas that are being affected by wildfire smoke.
Last year the Environmental Protection Agency in association with the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, and other agencies issued a Wildland Fire Sensors Challenge to spur the development of a transportable device that could measure some of the byproducts of combustion produced by vegetation fires. They offered prizes for the first and second place entries of $35,000 and $25,000.
The goal was a field-ready prototype system that could be set up near a fire that was capable of measuring constituents of smoke, including particulates, carbon monoxide, ozone, and carbon dioxide over the wide range of levels expected during wildland fires. It was to be accurate, light-weight, easy to operate, and capable of wireless data transmission, so that first responders and nearby communities have access to timely information about local air quality conditions during wildland fire events.
The winners have been announced:
Jason Gu of SenSevere/Sensit, a co-developer of the first place winning system, said they have a number of units in the field now being tested under real world conditions. They also want to install them near existing air quality monitoring stations to ensure that the data from the new design is comparable to data from the old-school stationary equipment that has been used for decades. When they are satisfied with the results, manufacturing will be the next step.
The SenSevere/Sensit unit has a battery that can last for three weeks but will have a solar panel to keep it charged. The device can transmit the data via a cellular connection or a radio. All of the sensors are made by SenSevere/Sensit. Their smoke sensor uses a blower that pulls air through a filter which removes the larger particles, and then a light beam detects the remaining very small PM2.5 particles, the ones that can be ingested deep inside a person’s lungs.
The video below has more information.
Red Flag Warnings are in effect in portions of eight states
While residents along the east coast are evacuating as a hurricane approaches, Red Flag Warnings are in effect for enhanced wildfire danger in areas of California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Colorado.
The map below is the forecast for the distribution of wildfire smoke at 5 p.m. MDT September 12, 2018.
