MODIS AOD shows some elevated column aerosol over the Gila again today in the morning. Not too informative for the other areas.
I think the main item to look for is smoke from the Gila and subsequent transport to other areas. Based on the Deming profiler the transport direction aloft is a northwest wind below 3 km bringing air from the NW toward the SE bringing smoke out of the Gila and into areas south. See the profiler ladder plot from 3 am (09 UTC) to 11 pm (05 UTC) to prove my point. Above 3 km winds show more west-southwest wind. The Santa Teresa NEXRAD VAD product shows the shear at little lower down, around 1.5 to 1.6 km above the surface.
The NOAA air quality smoke forecast also predict this as well. The map below is a forecast for surface smoke concentrations at 11 pm on May 30. Concentrations are mainly perceptible in El Paso County and southeast Dona Ana County at 11 pm. The Sunland Park City Yard showed some high PM to possibly confirm this with a PM2.5/PM10 ratio of around 0.27 or so. Not so obvious in Chaparral with PM10 around 40 to 50 ug/m3 but higher than what I would expect with not much wind. At 11 pm the Anthony site is showing PM2.5/PM10 ratio of 0.22 with PM10 at 64 ug/m3. The Holman Road LC site is showing PM10 of about 50 ug/m3 with very light easterly winds.
Right now the RUC shows northwesterly winds out of the Gila and some easterly winds across eastern Dona Ana County. It pretty much nails the Holman Road wind direction on the head. See the RUC20 surface wind vector map below from 06 UTC.
It will interesting to see the visibility in the morning after things have settled in the Valley.
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