Montana DEQ Forest Fire Smoke Advisory
Thursday, July 24, 2008
10:00 AM

FORECAST

A day of southwest winds pushing smoke from California into Montana has left MODERATE smoke conditions at Missoula and Butte this morning. There is a lot of smoke aloft for widespread hazy skies. Smoke from the fires west of Billings produced a short period of smoke impact yesterday afternoon but Billings looks GOOD so far today. Later this morning and early afternoon as convective activity picks up, some of the smoke aloft will mix down to the surface and produce short term MODERATE conditions for a few hours under the plume. Transport winds will be switching to the west-northwest today and into tonight and that should clear the California smoke out of our skies by tomorrow. Residents experiencing local impacts should use the visibility guidelines to determine smoke levels in their area and guide their activity decisions.

DISCUSSION

The sky is very hazy today and MODERATE conditions are reported at the surface in Missoula and Butte. Some of the smoke aloft will be mixing down to the surface later today for some intermittent MODERATE smoke levels at the surface. If the fires west of Billings put up a plume of smoke this afternoon the smoke will head directly into the Billings area. Residents experiencing impacts from haze should use the visibility guidelines to determine current conditions.

John Coefield
Meteorologist
Air Resource Management Bureau
Montana Department of Environmental Quality
406-444-5272
406-465-0835 (Mobile)

A satellite photo centered on Great Falls is illustrated below:
satellite photo centered on Great Falls

This morning’s analysis from NOAA’s satellite services division shows the extent of the smoke plume from California and the fires west of Billings. (the analyzed smoke is based on yesterday’s satellite coverage, the fire detects are based on last nights satellite coverage).

NOAA’s satellite image
Red indicates hot spot detected. Grey represents smoke seen by satellite. Fire size is exaggerated for visibility at this scale.

To identify individual fires on graphic above go here:
http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/lg_fire2.php

This morning’s smoke report is below, comparing particulate levels where we have information to MDEQ’s Forest Fire health advisory levels.

Locations and severity of forest fire smoke reports since midnight of the date above at reporting stations.

Real time particulate information is currently available in most of the larger urban areas from several different sources including: DEQ run PM-10 BAMS and PM2.5 BAMS, CS&KT run PM-10 TEOMS, NWS ASOS visibility monitors, and USFS remote access Nephelometers and BAMS.

These advisories represent conditions between midnight and 8 AM and may change substantially through the day.

HAZARDOUS  
VERY UNHEALTHY  
UNHEALTHY  
UNHEALTHY FOR SENSITIVE GROUPS  
MODERATE Missoula T(24)
Butte T(24)
T1(x) One-hour BAM value (number of values)
T8(x) Eight-hour average BAM value (number of values)
T24 24 hour  average BAM value
Vis(x) Visibility value (number of hours)
Vis(am/pm) Visibility value from twice/day reporting stations
(est) estimate