Tuesday, May 10, 2011

May 10

Another wind blown dust day. The NWS forecast is calling for afternoon winds in the 30 and 33 mph range with gusts up to 47 mph. Below are the RUC forecasted winds at 6 pm.

The AQI forecast shows an area of air quality unhealthy for sensitive groups in the Paso del Norte and extreme west Texas.
Based on the information from InciWeb the Miller Fire has crossed highway 15 (the main road to Gila Cliff Dwellings) and burned the area around the Cliff Dwellings yesterday. The Visitor Center was saved from the flames but it looks like the surroundings were burned. The map below is from last night's perimeter. I just popped it in Google Earth along with the locations of the Cliff Dwellings, Visitor Center, and the IMPROVE aerosol sampling station. I have no idea if the fire burned the IMPROVE site or not.
Trajectories from the Horseshoe Two fire look to be going toward the northeast and then north most of the day but later in the day they are tending to travel more eastward. This might contribute to some haze in the northern part of the state.
By the evening smoke plumes were mainly blown toward the northeast as the HMS product shows.
The NOAA GASP AOD product captures the our wind erosion and smoke impacts rather well. The image below is from the 2315 UTC (5:15 pm MDT).

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