Montana DEQ Forest Fire Smoke Advisory
Friday, July 25, 2008
10:00 AM

FORECAST

The sky is much clearer across the state today as west-northwest flow across the state has pushed the smoke we had overhead all day yesterday off to the southeast. There is still some haze but no problems are noted this morning. The winds are switching around to the west aloft and will turn southwest later today and tomorrow. This will push the smoke pooled over Washington across the central part of the state this evening and will direct smoke from northern California into southwest Montana by tomorrow. Montana will be stuck in the California smoke plume for the entire weekend and into early next week. Expect very hazy conditions and some intermittent impacts from the residual smoke as the plume mixes down. Residents experiencing local impacts should use the visibility guidelines to determine smoke levels in their area and guide their activity decisions.

DISCUSSION

There is still some haze in the sky today but it is much reduced from yesterday. There no reports of smoke impacts into communities in Montana this morning. 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 location of the smoke plumes from California yesterday evening. (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  
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