Air Quality in the Gorge

exgolfer · Joined: 11 Jun 2012 Posts: 42

while smoke is a minor problem compared to what many in the western states have suffered and are facing, the address below seems a good site to monitor the Air Quality Index in real time and determine when its OK to go outdoors!

https://aqicn.org/city/usa/washington/mobile/whitesalmon

30knotwind · Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 239 Location: White Salmon, WA

Thx, good link. Not looking good for getting outside soon.
Also like the one you posted elsewhere, with history
https://aqicn.org/map/usa/washington/mobile/whitesalmon/m/

Satellite loop is good here:
https://www.windy.com/-Satellite-satellite?satellite,43.517,-120.245,6

Chris

windfind · Joined: 18 Mar 1997 Posts: 1901

Animation of smoke imagery.

Mike Godsey
iwindsurf.com/ikitesurf.com
Weatheflow.com

westender · Joined: 02 Aug 2007 Posts: 1288 Location: Portland / Gorge

Crazy

hrwindsurfing · Joined: 29 May 2007 Posts: 52

I'm looking at the link given on iWindsurf forum, for the 762 air quality index. When I went to the link provided by the WA Dept of Ecology:

https://enviwa.ecology.wa.gov/home/map

It shows the max of 500, but you can click on the White Salmon Link, and the additional link to "more site information", and it shows the PM2.5 at 890.9 at 17:00. The link on the forum shows the graph with a max of 762. Any reason for the difference? Could it be the time of day?

Thanks, wondering whose number is more accurate.

westender · Joined: 02 Aug 2007 Posts: 1288 Location: Portland / Gorge

HR had been bouncing around 500 most of the day and was when I saw the 762 across the river. It was shocking enough to me that I thought I'd document that to the discussion. It was from the https://aqicn.org/map/oregon/ page.

Maybe the sensor calibration has problems at the top of the scale??

30knotwind · Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 239 Location: White Salmon, WA

Good animation of forecast. Looks like no relief in the near future.
https://www.windy.com/-PM2-5-pm2p5?cams,pm2p5,45.600,-121.187,5

windfind · Joined: 18 Mar 1997 Posts: 1901

Hi Gang,

The air quality here in White Salmon is significantly worse than Portland and far worse than the San Francisco Bay Area as you can see in the data from 6:57 AM.

This is due to the walls of the Gorge trapping the polluted air much like it captures the winter time fog inversion.

Our only hope is the upper trough at ≈ 18,000 ft. that has a trajectory towards the Pacific Northwest. Unfortunately, it is looking like it might turn into a Cut-Off Low that would have it wobbling around to our west. Matt will cover this in more detail in the forecast.

Mike Godsey
iwindsurf.com/ikitesurf.com
Weatheflow.com

mac · Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2020 7:46 pm Post subject:

There is another problem with the particulate data. There are two kinds of devices. The less expensive one, used by the purple network in the Bay area, measures optical back-scatter, an indirect way of measuring particulates. That is a less accurate, much cheaper technique.

JamesHardy · Joined: 29 Mar 2002 Posts: 159