Beaumont-Port Arthur Smoke November 2, 2008
Images
- Graph of PM2.5 Five-Minute Data
- Back Trajectory C131 9:00 am CST
- Satellite Animation - True Color
- Satellite Image 11:35 am CST - Southeast Texas True Color (from UW SSEC)
- Satellite Image 1:15 pm CST - Southeast Texas True Color (from UW SSEC)
Description
Dense smoke from a marsh grass fire at the north end of Sabine Lake in Louisiana swept slowly across portions of Port Arthur mid-morning on Sunday, November 2nd.
The highest measured daily average PM2.5 was 79.0 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m³) at the Port Arthur Service Center Continuous Ambient Monitoring Station (CAMS) 131, which rated as Level Red, Unhealthy, on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Air Quality Index (AQI)
scale. Port Arthur Memorial School CAMS 303 also measured a daily average of 45.3 µg/m³ which rated as Level Orange, "Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups". The highest one-hour average PM2.5 measured was 932 µg/m³ also at Port Arthur Service Center CAMS 131. The four remaining sites in the area measured "Moderate" PM2.5 levels.
High resolution true color MODIS satellite imagery shows the marsh grass fire source of the smoke on the north side of Sabine Lake in Louisiana and back trajectories confirm that the air with the highest PM2.5 levels came from that area.
