Heavy Rainfalls Lead to Healthier Air Quality Conditions in Colorado Front Range Last Week

Smoke, most likely originating from fires in the Northwest Territory (Canada), still lingered across the north and central US on the 27th of July.  NOAA's HMS imagery places smoke from the Canadian fires extending from the Colorado Front Range to Tennessee and across much of the central US (left).  Similarly, the AIRS instrument sees high concentrations of carbon monoxide throughout this area on the 27th (right).     

NOAA HMS fire and smoke product (left) and AIRS NRT carbon monoxide at mid-troposphere (right) courtesy of Debra Kollonige.

A low pressure system entered the region on the 28th of July, which resulted in heavy rainfall over the Colorado Front Range between July 28th-31st. The High Park Precipitation Station, near Masonville, CO, slightly southwest of Fort Collins, received roughly 2.5 inches of rain in about 24 hours (top). A precipitation station in Denver recorded almost 3 inches of rain in a similar time span (bottom).  This much needed rainfall helped temporarily relieve the state of its current drought conditions and most likely caused mixing of the smoke pollution into the atmosphere, leading to cleaner air quality conditions across the Colorado Front Range.  

Data and figures courtesy of the USGS, the Colorado Real-Time Precipitation Network, and Meredith Nichols.  

Measurements from the PSU NATIVE trailer out at Platteville, Colorado, taken during the DISCOVER-AQ campaign show the drop in carbon monoxide (left) and increase in relative humidity (right) between the 28th and 31st of July (marked in red on the figures below).  

Data and figures courtesy of the PSU Gator Team and Sonya Miller of PSU.

This blog posting was the combined effort of Debra Kollonige and Meredith Nichols.

  
Update 8/6/2014 at 1:00pm:  Here's an interesting video time lapse of the clouds and rainfall in the Front Range 28-31 July.  Thanks to Meredith Nichols for finding this.