Satellite Images Show Air Quality Is Worse in Some Northwestern Towns Than Beijing

Chris Dolce
Published: August 24,2015
Smoke from the widespread wildfires burning across the Northwest is contributing to very poor air quality in parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. In some cities, the air quality index (AQI) at times has been higher than Beijing, China, which has a notorious reputation for bad air quality.
(MORE: Latest News on Western Wildfires)
On Monday morning at 4 a.m. PDT, Spokane, Washington (187), and Boise, Idaho (167), both had an AQI that was higher than Beijing had seen in the past two days (164). The same could be said on Sunday morning, with Portland, Oregon (170), Eugene, Oregon (227), and Idaho Falls, Idaho (177), all registering a higher AQI than Beijing had in the prior two days, according to senior digital meteorologist Jonathan Erdman.
The numbers in parentheses above are the air quality index (AQI) readings for the times specified. Higher numbers correspond to poorer air quality.
(MORE: China Air Pollution Reaches the U.S.)
The widespread smoke responsible for the bad air quality was easy to spot Sunday on satellite imagery. In this NASA satellite image, the haziness shows how widespread the smoke was in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and western Montana.

Smoke in the Northwest on Sunday. (NASA)

However, it wasn't just on Sunday that the wildfire smoke was visible on satellite imagery. The two images below from Saturday and Thursday also show the hazy conditions from the smoke in parts of the Northwest.

Smoke on Saturday in the Northwest. (NASA)

Smoke in the Northwest on Thursday. (NASA)

The National Weather Service in Missoula, Montana, provided another perspective of the wildfire smoke's impact on visibility with this tweet sent on Sunday. Notice how the elevated terrain in the background of the image on the right side is not visible due to the dense smoke.

Air quality was expected to improve in western parts of Oregon and Washington on Monday, but remains poor across parts of the interior Northwest, including eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, Idaho and western Montana.
Another concern the next few days is the threat for dry thunderstorms in the northern Rockies. Since those thunderstorms could contain little or no rainfall, more wildfires could be ignited the next few days.
MORE: Early Aug. 2015 Wildfires