11/27/16 - Air Quality Summary - 11:00am Update

For a downloadable, printable version of this update, click here.

Monitoring:  Portable PM2.5 monitors are currently placed in Robbinsville, Andrews, Franklin, Brevard, Burnsville, Hendersonville, and Marion. Permanent monitors are located in Bryson City, Spruce Pine and Asheville.

Yesterday: No data update was received for Marion or Sylva/Waynesville area since yesterday afternoon. All other Western North Carolina communities that have portable and stationary smoke monitors recorded Good (AQI- Code Green) levels of air quality yesterday.  

Today: As of early this morning, the Franklin area is seeing an increase in smoke concentrations, and has moved into the Moderate level (AQI-Code Yellow). Franklin may also see increased levels today and tonight and may reach the Unhealthy (AQI-Code Red) levels. All other monitors are showing hourly air quality values classified as Good in Western North Carolina this morning. With the expected winds and fire behavior today and tonight, Robbinsville, Topton, and Burnsville may see hourly air quality values classified as USG (AQI-Code Orange). All other areas of WNC are expected to see moderate (AQI-Code Yellow) air quality today.

Tomorrow:  With the incoming cold front and expected wind speeds, all communities in Western NC are expected to see air quality in the Good range tomorrow. Some areas could see some drifting

smoke from the late afternoon throughout evening and residual smoldering may occur, affecting areas immediately downwind of ongoing fires.

North Carolina Division of Air Quality (DAQ) Air Quality Forecast:  NC DAQ issues an air quality forecast for the entire state each day. Their forecast is for broad geographical areas and is complementary to our more community-specific focus which looks at localized short-term impacts due to the wildfires. To the right is the NC DAQ forecast map for today. Note that DAQ may update its forecast throughout the day at https://xapps.ncdenr.org/aq/ForecastCenter. 

For more information about North Carolina air quality updates: https://xapps.ncdenr.org/aq/ForecastCenter

For more information about National Forests in North Carolina:

https://www.facebook.com/nfsnc/\