Wildfire smoke and air quality maps, August 19, 2021

Forecast for vertically integrated smoke
Forecast for vertically integrated smoke at 10 p.m. PDT Aug. 19, 2021.

Smoke from wildfires will have serious impacts Thursday in California, Washington, and eastern Canada. The smoke forecast for 10 p.m. PDT is above.

The map below depicts the air quality at 7:26 a.m. PDT Aug. 19, 2021, by AirNow.

Air quality: ozone, PM2.5, & PM10
Air quality: ozone, PM2.5, & PM10 at 7:26 a.m. PDT Aug. 19, 2021. AirNow.

Smoke forecast and air quality, August 15, 2021

Air quality PM2.5 andPM10 at 8:01 a.m. PDT Aug 15, 2021
Air quality (ozone, PM2.5, andPM10) at 8:01 a.m. PDT Aug 15, 2021. AirNow.gov.

The areas with the worst air quality and smoke Sunday will be Northern California, Southern Oregon, Northeast Washington, Idaho, Northern Utah, Northern Nevada, Northwest Wyoming, and Montana — basically the northwest quarter of the country.

Above is the air quality in the Western United States (ozone, PM2.5, and PM10) at 8:01 a.m. PDT August 15, 2021. By AirNow.

Below is the forecast for near-surface wildland fire smoke at 1 p.m. PDT Sunday August 15, 2021.

Forecast wildland fire smoke 1 p.m. PDT August 15, 2021
Forecast for near surface wildland fire smoke at 1 p.m. PDT August 15, 2021. NOAA.

In case you missed it, read, Smoke linked to thousands of COVID-19 cases on West Coast.

To see other articles on Wildfire Today tagged “smoke”, including the most recent, click HERE.

Smoke forecast and air quality, August 13, 2021

Forecast for near surface smoke
Forecast for near surface smoke at 6 p.m. PDT Aug 14, 2021.

Above is the forecast for the distribution of smoke from wildfires Saturday at 6 p.m. PDT August 14, 2021.

The map below shows the actual air quality in the Western U.S. at 6:46 p.m. PDT August 13, 2021, based on PM2.5 and PM10.

Air quality, at 6:46 p.m. PDT Aug 13, 2021
Air quality, at 6:46 p.m. PDT Aug 13, 2021, by AirNow.gov

To see other articles on Wildfire Today tagged “smoke”, including the most recent, click HERE.

Smoke linked to thousands of COVID-19 cases on West Coast

More than half of the 22 coronavirus fatalities in Calaveras County, CA were tied to smoke

Satellite photo, wildfires,
As the sun begins to set on the west coast, gray smoke from wildfires can be easily distinguished from white clouds. NOAA, GOES 17.

From the San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 13, 2021


The presence of wildfire smoke last year during the pandemic may have been responsible for at least 19,000 additional coronavirus cases on the West Coast, and 700 subsequent deaths, a new study shows.

The study, published Friday in the journal Science Advances, offers the most detailed accounting yet of how the devastating 2020 wildfire season is believed to have amplified the coronavirus outbreak. It traces increases in infections to periods of smoke in more than 50 counties in California, Oregon and Washington.

While a correlation between wildfire smoke and COVID-19 doesn’t prove causation, the study’s authors say the tie is no coincidence. Plenty of research since the start of the pandemic has suggested that exposure to smoke’s primary unhealthy component PM 2.5, which refers to particulate matter that is 2.5 micrometers in size or smaller, compromises people’s immunity and increases susceptibility to COVID-19. Scientists also hypothesize that the virus may be spread by the particles.

The team’s models crunched coronavirus numbers in 92 counties during non-smokey periods from March 15 to Dec. 16 and how these numbers changed when wildfire smoke brought particulate pollution. The area that the researchers examined covered 95% of the population in California, Oregon and Washington. They excluded areas that did not have sufficient data for modeling.

Smoke forecast and air quality, August 8, 2021

Air Quality (PM2.5 & PM10) at 7:07 p.m. PDT Aug 8, 2021
Air Quality (PM2.5 & PM10) at 7:07 p.m. PDT Aug 8, 2021. AirNow.

Wildfires in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Canada are creating smoke that is affecting air quality in most of the Western United States.

Smoke Forecast for 2 a.m. PDT August, 9 2021
Forecast for near surface smoke at 2 a.m. PDT August 9, 2021. NOAA.