Air Quality Advisory Still in Effect for Lemhi County

 

Hazy and smoky weekend on the horizon

Air quality forecasts for today are in the Good to Moderate Category with Salmon in the Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups Category.

Smoke will continue to affect the Central Idaho Mountains the greatest. There will be drainage at night into the entirety of the Snake River Plain, increasing in expanse from previous evenings to the west (following the nocturnal flow pattern) to create hazy conditions by Sunday morning. Elevated smoke will create hazy conditions at times across the entire state, but this regionally-transported smoke is anticipate to stay aloft.  On Monday, the shifting weather pattern and increased southwest wind pattern will shunt smoke out of the Snake River Plain and provide some clearing in that area.

Furthermore, dry thunderstorm activity this afternoon and evening over the Central Mountains and Southeast Highlands could amount to more fire starts which would lead to more smoke than currently anticipated.  

Source: HRRR-Smoke Vertically Integrated Smoke initialized 12Z shows ample smoke aloft across the state today.  Higher concentrations will occur in the Central Idaho Mountains.

Smoky in Central Idaho Mountains: Hazy along ID/OR/WA border

Air quality forecasts for today are in the Good to Moderate Category with Salmon in the Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups Category.  

Smoke will continue to affect the Central Idaho Mountains the greatest. There will be drainage at night into the entirety of the Snake River Plain, increasing its spread from previous evenings to the west (following the nocturnal flow pattern) to create hazy conditions. Furthermore, dry thunderstorm activity this afternoon and evening over the Central Mountains and Southeast Highlands could amount to more fire starts. Elevated smoke will create hazy conditions over the central Idaho border with Oregon and Washington as smoke meanders eastward. Clearing is expected tomorrow morning by 11am.

Source:  HRRR-Smoke Vertically Integrated Smoke initialized at 12Z (06am MST) and valid at 00Z 072922 (06pm 072822) shows smoke across much of Washington and Oregon with locally high concentrations in the vicinity of Salmon and hazy conditions over much of the Snake River Plain. Patchy smoke can also be expected across portions of the northern Panhandle.

Continued impacts in the Central Idaho Mountains

Air quality forecasts for today are in the Good to Moderate Category with Salmon in the Unhealthy Category. 

Smoke will continue to affect the Central Idaho Mountains the greatest. There will be drainage at night into the Upper Snake and Middle Snake River Plain and filling to the west into the Lower Snake River Plain early tomorrow morning which will increase concentrations across the Plain.  Clearing is expected tomorrow morning by 11am with the break of the nocturnal radiation inversion.

Source: Bluesky PNW-4km initialized 00Z 0727 valid 0727 9pm shows drainage smoke within the Upper Salmon, Big Lost, Little Lost, Pahsimeroi, Lemhi, and Birch drainages and tracking into the Middle and Upper Snake River Plain.

Occasional haze in SW Idaho; ample smoke near Salmon

Air quality forecasts for today are in the Good to Moderate Category with Salmon in the Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups Category.

Smoke will continue to affect the Central Idaho Mountains the most with drainage at night into the Upper Snake and Middle Snake River Plain reaching the Nevada border by tomorrow morning.  Ample smoke remains to the west as it tracks up the Oregon coast.  Expect periods of haze over southwestern Idaho as this smoke slowly meanders east.

Source: 12Z HRRR NW Vertically Integrated Smoke shows smoke aloft over the Central Idaho Mountains and draining south into the Middle and Upper Snake River Plain tonight and into tomorrow while light smoke from the west will create hazy conditions in southwestern Idaho.

Air Quality Advisory for Lemhi County

 

No signs of letting up in Salmon

Air quality forecasts for today are in the Good to Moderate Category with Salmon in the Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups Category. 

An upper level ridge of high pressure located over the Eastern Pacific will continue to strengthen and grow today.  There will be hot temperatures over much of the state. Surface winds will be light; between 2-8 mph with warm easterly winds over Central Idaho. Winds will be from the west to northwest over southern Idaho at 5-10 mph.

 

A new source of smoke has appeared with the ridge of high pressure as fires in California track to the north and east before entering southern Idaho.  This pattern will bring more smoke each day to a wider area of southern Idaho until at least Friday. Continued smoke impacts from fires in Central Idaho will affect communities within the Central Mountains and eastern Idaho into Utah and Wyoming.

Source: HRRR-Smoke: Vertically Integrated Smoke: Initialized 12Z (0600 072522) and valid 18Z (1200 072622) shows smoke within the Middle and Upper Snake River Plain with locally high concentrations in the Salmon area while a large plume sits along the Oregon Coast before nudging into southwestern Idaho.

Smoked Salmon

Air quality forecasts for today are in the Good to Moderate Category with Salmon in the Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups Category.

The Idaho Panhandle will see scattered thunderstorms today with gusty winds in southern Idaho. These winds, combined with low relative humidities have prompted a Red Flag Warning across much of southern and portions of central Idaho. On Sunday, the intersection of ID/WY/UT will have a slight chance for isolated thunderstorms.

The strong winds mentioned above will likely move smoke in and out of the valley communities near the Moose Fire with conditions improving each afternoon. Nighttime drainage will bring light smoke into the Upper Snake River Plain and west into the Middle Snake River Plain reaching as far as Elmore county by 7am tomorrow. This weekend, smoke aloft will move eastward with consistent nighttime drainage into the Snake River Plain each night.

Source: FireSmoke Canada 7/22/2022

Smoky near Salmon

The 24 hour AQI was in the Good category yesterday across the state with only Salmon reporting Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups. Forecasts for today are in the Good to Moderate categories with Salmon still in the Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups category.

The Moose fire continues to produce smoke and thanks to a slowly changing high pressure ridge, smoke movement will be like yesterday with the highest concentrations of smoke immediately downwind of high fire activity and in the vicinity of Salmon. Expect clearing in the afternoon with conditions deteriorating after sunset.

GOES-East Visible Satellite “Natural Fire Color Imagery” shows smoke from fires in Central Idaho producing smoke and that smoke tracking into the local valleys and east between 1pm and 7pm MST yesterday 07/21/22.  The fanning pattern of the smoke provides observational information about the stability of the atmosphere.

Wildfire season is upon us

Well, wildfire season is here and we'll be updating this blog daily to help you stay informed. 

Yesterday's 24 hr. AQI data was in the Good category with Salmon reporting Unhealth for Sensitive Groups. Today, we are forecast to be in the Good to Moderate category across most of the state with Salmon in the Unhealth for Sensitive Groups category once again. 

Smoke movement will be similar to yesterday - areas immediately downwind of high fire activity and in the vicinity of Salmon will see the highest concentrations of smoke. Breezy afternoon conditions will move smoke around the region leading to denser smoke at times and less smoke at other times. 

Air Quality Advisory for Lemhi County

 

Wildland Fire Potential Outlook

Last week, the National Interagency Fire Center Predictive Services published their newest wildland fire potential outlooks for the next few months. The good news is that while drought persists in parts of Idaho, all of Idaho is predicted to have a "normal" potential for fires in July. The southwestern portion of Idaho will move up to "above normal" potential for August before the whole state moves back to "normal" potential for September.