Why is Kansas City’s air quality in the ‘green’ as Western wildfire smoke hovers?
Smoke from the western wildfires is hovering over a large part of the central United States, but it’s having little impact on Kansas City’s air quality.
The reason is that the dense smoke is remaining in the middle to upper atmosphere, said Jimmy Barham, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the Kansas City area..
“There’s not a whole lot on the surface,” Barham said.
Except for a few spikes into the moderate or “Yellow” level, Kansas City has seen its air quality remain in the good or “Green” level, he said. At the moderate level, air quality is acceptable, but there may be a risk for some people who are sensitive to air pollution.
Even when the smoke affected the metro’s air quality, it was mostly overnight when surface temperatures cooled, allowing the smoke to settle to the surface, Barham said.
“Overall, the air quality hasn’t been bad in our area,” Barham said. The smoke has caused skies to be hazy and made the sunrises and sunsets more colorful.
That doesn’t hold true for parts of central and western Kansas and Oklahoma, which have seen an impact in their air quality due to the smoke.
Last week, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment issued an alert about potential impacts to air quality from the dense smoke.
“While a majority of this smoke is remaining high in the atmosphere there are times when the smoke is being observed at the surface and impacting air quality,” health officials said in a press release. “These air quality impacts may continue to be seen as long as the Western U.S. wildfires continue to burn.”
Common health problems from smoke include burning eyes, running nose, coughing and illnesses such as bronchitis, the health department said. People with respiratory issues, pre-existing heart or lung disease, children and elderly may have worse symptoms.
The health department advised:
- Healthy people to limit or avoid strenuous outdoor exercise.
- People with respiratory or heart-related illnesses to remain indoors.
- People with COVID-19 symptoms or those recovering from the disease to remain indoors.
- People to keep indoor air clean by running air conditioners with air filters and keeping windows and doors closed.
People were also encouraged to stay hydrated and to contact their doctors if they had chest pains, chest tightness, shortness of breath or severe fatigue.
Air quality across the U.S. can be viewed online at https://fire.airnow.gov/.
As of Monday, smoke from the wildfires covered a large portion of the central and western United States, as well as central Canada and northern Mexico.
“That’s smoke from a week ago that got caught up in the atmosphere,” Barham said.
Because the weather pattern has been stagnant in the Kansas City area, there has been no cold front or rains to push the smoke way. It has been “stuck here,” he said.
But over the next two days, remnants of Tropical Storm Beta will clear out Missouri for the most part and push the smoke into Nebraska and Kansas.
