Smoke has returned in a big way over Washington State. Yesterday's (Monday) MODIS satellite image showed large amounts of smoke moving northward from large fires in SW Oregon and NW California and local fires over the eastern slopes of the Cascades are making things worse.
The visible satellite image this morning at 7:30 AM really shows the plume of smoke, which is worse south and east of Seattle. (Low clouds are along the coast).
A close up view really highlights a plume of smoke emanating form a fire over the central Cascades, which is topped by a pyrocumulus cloud that is clearly casting a shadow.
This cloud cloud and associated plume were substantial enough to produce a distinct echo
The latest visible satellite photo shows the impressive nature of two Washington State fires
Visibility has really gotten bad in parts of the Cascades...here is an image this morning from Crystal Mountain, which is not offering crystal-clear skies
And the denser smoke to the east of Seattle was evident in this sunrise shot looking towards the Cascades from the Space Needle panocam.
The smoke unfortunately has mixed down to lower levels over western WA and the air quality has declined substantially in Seattle (see graphic from Puget Sound Clean Air Agency).
The regional air quality situation is scary (green good, red bad, purple means you better not breathe). Much of western Oregon has very poor air quality.
On the positive side, the smoke is reducing temperatures, as shown by this plot of solar radiation at the UW. Yesterday, the solar radiation was reduced by roughly 13%. Did you notice the strange yellow/reddish cast to the light?
Tomorrow (Wed) there will be a mini-marine push of cool, ocean air as an upper-level trough comes through (see map).
But this will bring only temporary relief as ANOTHER ridge of high pressure moves in (see forecast for Friday).
from Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog http://ift.tt/2wgiEer
No comments:
Post a Comment