Every year, tens of thousands of wildfires burn millions of acres in the United States, blanketing one community after another in smoke. The fire experts at the Cooperative Institute for Research In Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and CU Boulder have compiled a list of go-to resources that provide up-to-date information on how the wildfires are progressing, the smoke transport in the atmosphere, and impacts on air quality. These efforts draw on many different sources of information — from local air quality monitoring stations to satellites in space. They represent how big data, and the hundreds of scientists behind those data, are helping us understand fire.
For Example:
See real-time info on active fires in the United States, learn about specific fires and what they are doing, and through the NOAA Global System Laboratory's Experimental Hourly Wildfire Potential (HWP) index, see the potential for fire in the United States.
Check if the air good enough to go for a walk in your neighborhood, check out air pollution look like around the planet or see air quality issues in the Western United States from the The Western Regional Air Partnership (WRAP), a voluntary partnership between states, tribes, federal land managers, local air agencies, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
See much more about smoke, wind, fire, air quality and the best part: a contact list of fire experts to answer questions!
Always check with your local emergency department for specific information on evacuations and immediate threats to lives and property.
About CIRES:
The Cooperative Institute for Research In Environmental Sciences includes more than 900 people working to understand the dynamic Earth system, including people’s relationship with the planet. An institute at the University of Colorado Boulder, CIRES has partnered with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) since 1967.
CIRES' areas of expertise include weather and climate, wildfire and water, changes at Earth’s poles, air quality and atmospheric chemistry, water resources, solid Earth sciences, and more.
CIRES mission: Conduct innovative research that advances our understanding of the global, regional, and local environments and the human relationship with those environments, for the benefit of society.
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