Where is wildlife smoke, air quality at its worst? Here's a map of the entire US - USA Trending Blog
Where is wildlife smoke, air quality at its worst? Here's a map of the entire US - USA Trending Blog
With wildfires burning in North America, it's important to know if you are enveloped in toxic smoke. The smoke is dangerous because it contains a mixture of hazardous gases and solid particles smaller than a human hair.
According to the EPA, particulate matter, also known as PM 2.5, is a main component of wildfire smoke and is the air pollutant of greatest concern to public health. The fine particles are inhaled and enter your lungs and bloodstream where they can cause damage to other organs. Intense heat from the fires pushes the smoke high into the atmosphere where it stays until it cools and begins to fall. Sometimes the smoke sinks to the surface. Either aloft or on the surface, strong winds can carry it long distances, even thousands of miles away. Smoke concentrations during a wildfire rapidly change, making it important to frequently monitor updates to smoke predictions.
Where wildfire smoke is in the US right now?
As these tiny particles make it to the surface of the earth, they can also enter indoor spaces. There is good news, however: As smoke moves downwind, it generally becomes more diluted and widespread but less dangerous, according to Susan Stone, a senior environmental health scientist in EPA’s Office of Air Quality Planning & Standards. This means more people may be affected over a larger area but by less intense air pollution.
Even when smoke is visible in the atmosphere, the actual air quality reading might be lower than expected if the smoke is not concentrated near the ground.
The EPA monitors air quality near ground level where people breathe and relates the information to health effects you may experience within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. The map below shows the level of PM 2.5.
Where the air quality is the worst right now
Predicting if the air quality will improve or worsen can be difficult because of the unpredictable behavior of wildfires and factors such as wind, weather, and terrain," according to an EPA course on air quality for health care providers.
In 2022 the federal government spent over $3.5 billion putting out fires across nearly 7.6 million acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
0 Comments