Friday, May 27, 2011

May 27

I saw lots of lingering smoke this morning in Las Cruces. This morning I was at the Vado satellite station getting the ozone analyzer in working order. I could smell smoke while I was there. It smelled the same as when I was in Columbus yesterday.

From the NWS forecast, we are seeing westerly winds at or near 28 mph today with temperatures nearing the 100 mark. The high yesterday was 96F at NMSU. Today's low was only 60F. The winds may be an issue in blowing dust late this afternoon with gusts nearing 40 mph in some places.
 The AQI forecast shows an area of moderate air quality over the Paso del Norte and El Paso County from PM10.
Although outside of our study region, the outlook for precipitation over the next 5 days shows a possibility in eastern NM. Areas such as Carlsbad may see some thunderstorms on Tuesday. Carlsbad deserves some precipitation since their forecasted high temperature on Saturday might reach 108F.
As of 7 pm we have lots of smoke aloft in Las Cruces but not a lot at the ground. Below is the GOES visible at 7:15 pm showing the Horseshoe 2 Fire smoke plume drifting east. You can also see dust lofting off of White Sands and blowing northeast toward Tularosa.
By day's end the NOAA HMS smoke product showed the outlines of plumes over our study region. Push pins show ozone monitoring locations.

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