Air quality and heat risk forecasts from the National Weather Service

[elagache]

Dear WeatherCat faithful,

You never know what those "swell folks" at the National Weather Service are going to introduce next.  In case you hadn't noticed, most of their webpages are chalked full of links in tiny print at the bottom.  For whatever reason, I noticed a link called: "Air Quality Forecasts" at the bottom of most forecast pages.  Clicking on this link will bring up a page like this:

https://airquality.weather.gov/probe_aq_data.php?latitude=37.8051&longitude=-122.2731

This particular link is for Piedmont which is on the other side of the Berkeley Hills from where I live.  You will note that this URL takes a latitude and longitude so you can "dial in" the forecast for the location as close to your weather station as is available.

The second link I found is experimental and may only work for the Western half of the United States.  It is a graphical heat risk forecast.  Here is the link for the San Francisco Bay Area in general:

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/wrh/heatrisk/?&zoom=7.6000000000000005&center=37.69,-122.24&basemap=ESRI%20Topographic&boundaries=true,false,false,false&products=false,false,false&opacity=80

You will also see that this link takes latitude and longitude and has a number of other options.  Unfortunately, not all of them are obvious, but clearly you can customize it to some degree for your location and interests.  This service might also exist for other parts of the country.  Can anybody find the equivalent?

That least these URLs are some distraction while us folks in the drought-parched west wait for the rains to finally return! 

Cheers, Edouard 

[Blicj11]

Thanks for posting. We've had our first smoke-free day in weeks, which allowed a blue sky backdrop to the fall Aspens as viewed from my back deck.

[elagache]

Dear Blick and WeatherCat observers of the seasons turning, . . .

Thanks for posting. We've had our first smoke-free day in weeks, which allowed a blue sky backdrop to the fall Aspens as viewed from my back deck.

I'm glad your air quality is improving.  Alas, we are still lagging behind.  A nearby PurpleAir sensor is now reading an AQI of 159 - down from nearly 300 this morning.  Definitely not yet time to describe the situation as "all clear."

Thanks for sharing the beautiful photo of the autumn trees.  You are continuing to enjoy your dividends of a remote mountain location!

Cheers, Edouard