Category: Wildfire Smoke

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Photo of the Day

With low relative humidity, gusty daytime breezes, and little or no rain in the forecast, many counties and local municipalities in the lower Susquehanna basin have enacted bans on open burning to prevent accidental wildfires.  With these dangerous conditions prevailing, you know enough not to burn trash and leaves, or to carelessly discard ashes or smoking materials.  And you’re smart enough to keep close watch on fires used for cooking and to keep them within approved enclosures such as a grill with a lid.  But have you thought of eliminating another common form of ignition, this one originating from your car or truck?  Your motor vehicle’s catalytic converter is hot enough to ignite dry leaves, grasses, and crop residues like corn shocks upon contact, so be extra careful where you park.  Be certain that your pollution control device remains free and clear of combustibles!
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Take a Deep Breath This Independence Day Weekend

The gasoline and gunpowder gang’s biggest holiday of the year has arrived yet again.  Where does all the time go?

In observance of this festive occasion, we’ve decided to take a look at all the stuff that’s floating around in the atmosphere before all the motor travel, celebratory fires, and exciting explosions get underway.

We’ll start with the smoke from wildfires in Canada…

In the margins between the water vapor clouds, a smoky haze can be seen across the Mid-Atlantic States this morning.  To warn residents of the potential health impacts, air quality alerts have been issued by numerous state and local agencies.  (NOAA/GOES image)
Near the top of this image, ember-red areas denote the locations of some of the hottest forest fires presently burning in remote portions of northern Quebec.  (NOAA/GOES Fire Temperature Composite image)
Wildfires are now burning in every province in Canada.   Note the smoky haze that is visible between the water vapor clouds as it drifts from Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan through the Great Lakes and into the Mid-Atlantic States.  (NOAA/GOES image)

If you think that smoke accounts for all the particulate matter now obscuring skies in the northern half of the western hemisphere, then have a gander at this…

As it often does at this time of year, dust from the Sahara Desert in northern Africa is blowing into the Caribbean Islands and Amazonia.  This morning’s full-disk satellite image shows both the smoke from wildfires in Canada and a well-defined earth-tone cloud of desert dust streaming west across the Atlantic from Africa.  (NOAA/GOES image)

As you can see, natural processes are currently providing a plentiful load of particulates in our skies.  There’s no real need to aggravate yourself and the situation by sitting in traffic or burning your groceries on the barbecue.  And you can let those cult-like homeowner chores for later.  After all, running the mower, whacker, and blower will only add to the airborne pollutants.  While celebrating this Fourth of July, why risk mangling fingers on your throwing hand or catching the neighbor’s house on fire when you could just relax and quietly eat ice cream or watermelon?  Yeah, that’s more like it.

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Photo of the Day

The Sun in Wildfire Smoke
Nearly a full hour before it set below the western horizon, the sun faded into the clouds of Canadian wildfire smoke filling the skies of the lower Susquehanna valley and was gone.  Look closely…the haze filtered the sun’s glare so completely that several sunspots are visible.
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The Smoke is About to Get Even Thicker

Forest Fire Smoke Plume
The smoky haze from forest fires burning to our north in Canada is about to cast a yet darker orange-brown shadow.  A very dense plume is, at the moment of this writing, quickly approaching the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed.  Low pressure to our northeast is concentrating this 400-mile-wide wall of airborne particulates and steering it in our direction.  (NOAA/GOES image)

Watch the cloud on the move—click here for a GIF animation of this image.

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