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Air Quality Update from the National Weather Service

July 7, 2015

We at the NWS are anticipating this smoke will continue on and off with different levels of severity for several weeks at least. In coordination with the public health officials, we will be using a 3-mile visibility or lower criteria for issuing highlights on our social media (Facebook and Twitter are viewable without an account). At one mile or less we will issue a Dense Smoke Advisory. While those who have asthma and COPD and other lung issues may see issues well before we get to 3 miles, this is where the general public may start experiencing problems. This was selected based on the Montana DEQ Air Quality categories for 2.5 um particulates and is the transition from "Unhealthy" to "Very Unhealthy." Those already vulnerable to lung issues need to be taking precautions daily.  

According to the latest Canadian Fire Situation Report, there are 3,678,884 acres burning in northern Saskatchewan, northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories. These fires will continue burning for weeks if not months. It will require a major weather/season ending event (colder weather, significant rainfall/snow etc) to end the fires and the smoke.  

Monday night, Montana had smoke from the northern fires combined with smoke from British Columbia (another 318,000 acres burning there) spread across the state. Satellite image from 9 a.m. July 7, shows where the smoke is. The brighter white is clouds, the lighter gray wispier-looking elements are smoke.  You can see a band from southern British Columbia into western MT and across central Montana into ND and SD. There is another band of smoke to our north today in Canada between the two cloud areas as well.    

Actions people can take to improve breathing issues:

-Stay indoors, especially when the visibility is reduced at the ground level, not just hazy skies. 

-Use recirculate/max AC button in your vehicle.

-Use AC at home. If you don't have it, find friends/family you can go to.

-If you have dampers on your HVAC, close them. (That made a world of difference in our own office here at NWS Glasgow, cleared things up within 20 minutes when the first wave of smoke hit about 10 days ago!) 

-Replace the air filters in your home with HEPA filters.

-Use a clean air machine in your bedroom.

-For serious issues, contact your medical provider.

-The paper type masks you get at a clinic or hardware store will not protect you against particulates from smoke. An N95 mask (also available at hardware stores or online) is a certified respirator and is what those with serious issues should utilize. 

Resources:

Current Air Quality: 

Montana DEQ Air Quality:  http://svc.mt.gov/deq/todaysair/

(There are two sensors in eastern Montana, one in Malta, the other in Sidney)

ND Dept of Health Air Quality:  http://www.ndhealth.gov/aq/Ambient.aspx

Smoke Forecasts:

http://airquality.weather.gov/sectors/northrockies.php?period=1#tabs

Select 1 hour average surface smoke (red shows the densest areas) and 1 hour Vertical Smoke Integration (shows the potential depth of the column, again red is the worst area).

Monitoring Current Fires/Smoke:

http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/land/hms.html

(Select the Google KML files for fire and/or smoke, open them up in Google Earth, caveat, cloudiness sometimes obscures the smoke so it doesn't show the entire area well). 

USFS Active Fire Monitoring site: http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/

Health Related info:

http://www.nationaljewish.org/about/mediacenter/pressreleases/2012/wildfire-smoke/

http://www.cdc.gov/Features/Wildfires/

 

Northern Rockies Daily Fire Situation Reports: 

http://gacc.nifc.gov/nrcc/predictive/intelligence/morning_report.htm

 

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