Wildfire smoke blankets North American skies

This map shows the concentration of black carbon particulates — commonly called soot — over North America on July 21, 2021. The black carbon data come from the GEOS forward processing model, which assimilates data from satellite, aircraft, and ground-based observing systems. Read more about this image, which is via Joshua Stevens, using GEOS-5 data from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA GSFC/ NASA Earth Observatory.

Smoke from wildfires in Canada and the western United States is blaneting North America. As of July 21, 2021, ais quality alerts had been issued even in the U.S. East, and, by mid-week, even New York City was blanketed with haze from wildfire smoke. The New York Times reported on July 21:

In recent weeks, a series of near-relentless heat waves and deepening drought linked to climate change have helped to fuel exploding wildfires. In southern Oregon, the Bootleg Fire grew so large and hot that it created its own weather, triggering lightning and releasing enormous amounts of smoke. But more than 80 large fires are currently burning across 13 American states, and many more are active across Canada.

See an animated smoke map of North America from July 21, 2021.

Wildfires burning in the western U.S. as of July 22, 2021, via InciWeb.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Eric Thurber in Boise captured a reddened sun due to wildfire smoke on July 19, 2021: “Sunsets continue to be pretty wild as the smoke continues to roll into southwest Idaho.” Thank you, Eric.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Michael Terhune in Lunenburg Massachusetts captured this wildfire sunset on July 20, 2021. He said he’d “never seen one like this before.” Thank you, Michael.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Ragini Chaturvedi in Marlboro, New Jersey captured these images of a reddened moon on July 20, 2021. She wrote: Last night, at dusk, in the blue hour the smog from wildfires was still covering the skies and made the waxing Moon all red, as well.” Thank you, Ragini.

The video below is from NOAAA Satellites on July 15, 2021:

Meanwhile, earlier this week (July 19, 2021), extremely dangerous wildfire conditions were forecast in California and southern Oregon. Firefighters in both states were battling massive wildfires burning through numerous square miles, as shown in the video below:

Bottom line: Wildfire smoke is blanketing North America, as of July 22, 2021. If you have an image of smoke or the effect of smoke on the sun or moon, you can submit it here.

The post Wildfire smoke blankets North American skies first appeared on EarthSky.

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This map shows the concentration of black carbon particulates — commonly called soot — over North America on July 21, 2021. The black carbon data come from the GEOS forward processing model, which assimilates data from satellite, aircraft, and ground-based observing systems. Read more about this image, which is via Joshua Stevens, using GEOS-5 data from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA GSFC/ NASA Earth Observatory.

Smoke from wildfires in Canada and the western United States is blaneting North America. As of July 21, 2021, ais quality alerts had been issued even in the U.S. East, and, by mid-week, even New York City was blanketed with haze from wildfire smoke. The New York Times reported on July 21:

In recent weeks, a series of near-relentless heat waves and deepening drought linked to climate change have helped to fuel exploding wildfires. In southern Oregon, the Bootleg Fire grew so large and hot that it created its own weather, triggering lightning and releasing enormous amounts of smoke. But more than 80 large fires are currently burning across 13 American states, and many more are active across Canada.

See an animated smoke map of North America from July 21, 2021.

Wildfires burning in the western U.S. as of July 22, 2021, via InciWeb.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Eric Thurber in Boise captured a reddened sun due to wildfire smoke on July 19, 2021: “Sunsets continue to be pretty wild as the smoke continues to roll into southwest Idaho.” Thank you, Eric.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Michael Terhune in Lunenburg Massachusetts captured this wildfire sunset on July 20, 2021. He said he’d “never seen one like this before.” Thank you, Michael.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Ragini Chaturvedi in Marlboro, New Jersey captured these images of a reddened moon on July 20, 2021. She wrote: Last night, at dusk, in the blue hour the smog from wildfires was still covering the skies and made the waxing Moon all red, as well.” Thank you, Ragini.

The video below is from NOAAA Satellites on July 15, 2021:

Meanwhile, earlier this week (July 19, 2021), extremely dangerous wildfire conditions were forecast in California and southern Oregon. Firefighters in both states were battling massive wildfires burning through numerous square miles, as shown in the video below:

Bottom line: Wildfire smoke is blanketing North America, as of July 22, 2021. If you have an image of smoke or the effect of smoke on the sun or moon, you can submit it here.

The post Wildfire smoke blankets North American skies first appeared on EarthSky.

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2Ut8mGR