See any haze over Carlsbad? It could be smoke from Canada's wildfires
A smoky haze could pass over Carlsbad and portions of southeast New Mexico as wildfires burning in Canada blanketed the eastern U.S. with clouds of heavy smoke imperiling air quality in several cities.
This was according to a smoke map published in real time by Air Now, a partnership of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Park Service, NASA, the Centers for Disease Control and local and state agencies.
As of Tuesday morning, the map showed Carlsbad, Hobbs and Roswell within the western edge of the smoke plume which covered almost all of Texas and Oklahoma, along with several other Midwest and eastern states.
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The fires in Canada were believed the cause of widespread air quality concerns throughout the the country, with millions of Americans under Air Quality Alerts in East Coast cities like New York, Philadelphia and Washington D.C., according to a Saturday report by USA TODAY.
Some residents were told to stay indoors while schools shifted to remote learning, the report read, after the problem was initially reported last week before air quality reportedly improved over the weekend due to shifting winds.
Air quality in Carlsbad was rated as "moderate" according to a map published by USA TODAY using data from an air monitoring station near the city, with 93 parts per billion (ppb) of ozone, the only pollutant measured by the monitor, the map showed.
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An air monitor in Hobbs showed "good" air quality with 41 ppb of ozone and 39 bbp of particulate matter, according to the map.
At the Sunspot Observatory near Cloudcroft, Kathy Draves said nothing unique was observed Tuesday morning by the daytime obervatory, just the typical blowing dust.
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She said the high winds and heavy dust can obscure observations during the day.
"We haven't seen anything that we can say yes (this is wildfire smoke)," she said. "We have a lot of winds here. We get a lot of dust. It makes it hard to determine."
Next door at the nighttime Apache Point Obervatory telescope engineer John Downey said if any haze or smoke had crept into southeast New Mexico, it was not yet at concerning levels like those which concerned cities to the east.
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He said if smoke levels get high enough, the observatory would cease operations to prevent soot buildup on its mirrors.
"It's certainly not in the magnitude they're seeing in other cities," Downey said. "We're not seeing anything unusual at the moment."
He said smoke levels last rose to observable levels last week, during a wildfire reported in New Mexico's Gila area to the southwest.
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As of June 12, the U.S. Forest Service reported the LS Mesa Fire was 60 percent contained, after it burned about 132 acres in Gila National Forest about 9 miles east of Gila.
"We got a lot of smoke," Downey said of the fire. "It probably affected the quality of observation, but nothing that would cause us to close."
Carlsbad was expected to see increasing hot, sunny conditions this week, with not air quality warnings posted by the National Weather Service as of Tuesday.
The NWS forecast temperatures to hit triple digits by Thursday with a high of 103 degrees maintaining for Friday and Saturday, along with clear conditions.
A Heat Advisory issued Tuesday warned of wildfire conditions in the area, and perilous heat through the weekend with no moisture expected.
"Very hot conditions develop each afternoon across most of the area Thursday through the weekend," read the NWS' Hazardous Weather outlook. "Excessive heat may occur in some spots, especially on Thursday and Friday, possibly into the weekend as cumulative heat fatigue sets in."
Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: See any haze over Carlsbad? It could be smoke from Canada's wildfires
