Air Quality Report and Outlook

Air Quality Report and Outlook for 8/30/14

The deception fire grew 149 acres yesterday as a result of interior burning and burn out operations to strengthen perimeter control lines.  Smoke from the majority of this increase vented to the southeast in the late afternoon and evening with valleys winds blowing out of the west. Overnight, the more stable conditions trapped emissions at the elevation of the fire. These emissions will drop into the valley late this morning peaking before noon and then clearing as a result of increased west winds this afternoon. We forecast the air quality in Oakridge and Westfir to reach Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups near noon for a short period before west valley winds will clear the area of the majority of pollutants. We anticipate the afternoon conditions in Westfir and Oakridge to improve to the Moderate range. On Sunday, another frontal system will result in north winds that should push the majority of smoke to the South.

Deception Complex Smoke Report (prepared by John Cook and Tod Johnson, Air Resource Advisors)­­­­­

Air Quality Outlook (Particulate Matter less than 2.5 µm in diameter)

Site	Saturday Morning forecast Aug 30, 2014	Saturday Afternoon forecast Aug 30, 2014	Saturday Evening forecast Aug 30, 2014
Oakridge	Moderate	Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups	Moderate
Westfir	Moderate	Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups	Moderate
Hills Creek Lake Area	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate

AQI Index (µg/m3)	Potential Health Impacts	Actions to Protect Yourself
Good (0-12)	Air quality is satisfactory and poses little or no health risk.	None
Moderate (13-35)	Air quality is acceptable for most. There may be moderate health concern for a small number of sensitive people.	Unusually sensitive people should consider reducing prolonged or heavy outdoor exertion.
Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups (36-55)	Members of sensitive groups may experience health effects. The general public is not likely to be affected.	People with heart or lung disease, children and older adults should reduce prolonged or heavy outdoor exertion.  Everyone else should limit prolonged or heavy exertion.
Unhealthy (56-150)	Everyone may begin to experience more serious health effects.	The following groups should avoid all physical outdoor activity: People with heart or lung disease, children and older adults.  Everyone else should avoid prolonged or heavy exertion.
Very Unhealthy (151-250)	Triggers a health alert, meaning everyone may experience more serious health effects	Everyone should avoid any outdoor exertion; people with respiratory or heart disease, the elderly and children should remain indoors.

For more information see the Oregon Smoke blog: http://oregonsmoke.blogspot.com

Air Quality data can be viewed at: http://www.deq.state.or.us/aqi/index.aspx