King Fire, September 23, 2014 Strong SW winds causing impacts to shift to the N and NE of the fire (including Truckee, CA)

The forecasted SW winds are starting to ramp up in Truckee likely other points NE of the fire, and smoke is beginning to rise to the forecasted Very Unhealthy to Hazardous levels. Here are a few snapshots from this afternoon (9/23), as the smoke rolled in, looking SW toward the fire from above the town of Truckee and the Truckee River.

3:15 PM

3:50 PM

With the strong forecasted transport, expect this to happen tomorrow as well.  Mornings should be better, though some impacts may persists through the night if the winds remain from the SW at night.

Below is a recap of today's AQ summary and forecast by the incident Air Resource Advisors:

(Gary M. Curcio (IPAFES) and Chuck Sams (USDA-FS))
 

Yesterday: Overnight, the smoke plume greatly expanded, and moved deep into Nevada, breaking apart toward the end of the day.  However, hazardous conditions remained at the Zone 1 ICP.  The entire Fire area became clearer as the day progressed, but the heaviest particulate loads were seen in Auburn and the Zone 1 ICP.

Today: Overnight the plume grows to cover a line from Pollock Pines to Reno with higher concentrations.  It then to shifts with a strong SW wind to greatly narrow, with abated concentrations along that line, and deep into Nevada by evening.  The plume then begins to breakup until about sunrise tomorrow.

Tomorrow: Overnight the plume breaks up, but begins to coalesce and widen until noon.  It is then characterized with high concentrations around that same SW to NW line as yesterday, but covering a much wider area with concentrations generally abating by 2:00 am the next morning.

The following table summarizes, based on best available data, the likely impacts at all monitoring sites.

The following map shows all the monitored sites, overlaid on this afternoon's MODIS satellite imagery: