Air quality expected to deteriorate through the weekend

Smoke impacts today will expand today due to fires burning across Oregon, Washington, western Montana, and southern British Columbia, Canada.  Expect impacts at the surface to be light, as most of the smoke is being transported into the region from fires burning in the west.  The Spokane-Coeur d’Alene corridor into Idaho should expect to see both surface smoke and smoke aloft today.  Local impacts should be expected in the vicinity of Garden Valley and Salmon due to the proximity of fires actively burning.  Due to the prevalent weather pattern, impacts in those communities will be strongest in the morning and after sunset.  The Treasure Valley should expect impacts due to drainage tonight both from fires in Oregon, and the Lodgepole fire in Idaho as well as smoke being transported into the region from regional fires.  Due to the weather change today and tomorrow, it is expected that regional transport smoke will increase over southwest Idaho.  Coverage on Saturday expands aloft to encompass all of southern Idaho with heavier values over south-central and southeast Idaho with some reprieve over central Idaho with a narrow band of smoke running from Spokane to Bonner’s Ferry. Fire activity is expected to increase due to the warm temperatures and increased wind speeds at the surface.  Locally heavy impacts in the morning and late evening hours should be expected across the Panhandle, the Clearwater drainage, southwest Idaho, and in the vicinity of Salmon and Garden Valley.  Later in the weekend, conditions are expected to deteriorate across eastern and southeast Idaho to some degree.

HRRR-Smoke Vertically integrated smoke concentrations forecast at 21200 UTC 07/21/18 (6am MDT).  This model is suggesting that impacts are expected to be widespread over southern Idaho while northern Idaho should see a short reprieve.

Data source:NOAA Model: HRRR-smoke (Experimental)