Dust EPA monitor flag
Daily PM2.5 peaked at 46.8 µg/m³ near Jacksonville across 6 covered metros home to 10 million people. 5 metros placed a top-ten day in their record.
Counting the extra PM2.5 above each metro's typical day, this event handed the average affected resident ≈ 5.4 cigarettes. Across everyone living in the affected metros, that is the collective equivalent of ≈ 56 million cigarettes. An awareness illustration of outdoor exposure at 22 µg/m³ per cigarette (Berkeley Earth), counting only the event's ranked days; not a medical dose.
Why we think this happened
Qualified frozen evidence supports transported or windblown dust as the broad root cause.
EPA monitor flag EPA attached an exceptional-event qualifier to the affected samples. The agency flagged the measurement itself; no separate agency record describes the event.
U.S. EPA Air Quality System and the submitting air monitoring agency · Sep 16, 2005 official
EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RA, African Dust.) on 2 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2005-09-16, identifying windblown or transported dust as affecting the samples. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
U.S. EPA Air Quality System and the submitting air monitoring agency · Sep 15, 2005 official
EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RA, African Dust.) on 2 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2005-09-15, identifying windblown or transported dust as affecting the samples. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
U.S. EPA Air Quality System and the submitting air monitoring agency · Sep 17, 2005 official
EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RA, African Dust.) on 2 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2005-09-17, identifying windblown or transported dust as affecting the samples. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
See every retained source and limitation ↓
Sequence: Jacksonville (Sep 14) → Orlando (Sep 14) → Tampa (Sep 15) → Deltona (Sep 16) → Lakeland (Sep 16) → Palm Bay (Sep 16)
Evidence path
A cause is more convincing when the record connects three things: something happened, the air mass moved toward the region, and local instruments responded. Here is how much of that chain is documented for this event.
Source or mechanism
EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RA, African Dust.) on 2 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2005-09-16, identifying windblown or transported dust as affecting the samples. A request-exclusion qualifier is an…
View supporting source ↗Air-mass movement
The retained record does not yet show how air traveled from the proposed source to these metros. A trajectory replay or dated plume analysis belongs here.
Local response
EPA monitors recorded the event across 6 metros. The peak daily concentration is roughly 2.1 cigarette-equivalents at the outdoor daily rate.
Inspect the pollutant and weather signals ↓Event autopsy
Before, during, and after the episode: nearby pollutant monitors and surface-weather stations show what changed. This context tests the “Dust” explanation; it does not assign the cause by itself.
Jacksonville, FL
Monitor comparison window 2005-09-11 to 2005-09-21 · PM2.5 target: Mayo Clinic
149% above nearby days
22% higher than surrounding days
149% higher than surrounding days
22% higher than surrounding days
90% higher than surrounding days
26% higher than surrounding days
42% higher than surrounding days
Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL
Monitor comparison window 2005-09-11 to 2005-09-21
71% above nearby days
59% higher than surrounding days
71% higher than surrounding days
59% higher than surrounding days
15% higher than surrounding days
49% higher than surrounding days
5% higher than surrounding days
32% higher than surrounding days
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL
Monitor comparison window 2005-09-11 to 2005-09-21 · PM2.5 target: THE SITE IS ON A GRASS COVERED OPEN AREA OF THE PLANT CITY HIGH SCHO
144% above nearby days
30% lower than surrounding days
70% higher than surrounding days
144% higher than surrounding days
70% higher than surrounding days
22% higher than surrounding days
9% higher than surrounding days
29% higher than surrounding days
14% higher than surrounding days
About the same as surrounding days
About the same as surrounding days
30% lower than surrounding days
Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, FL
Monitor comparison window 2005-09-11 to 2005-09-21 · PM2.5 target: DAYTONA BLIND SERVICES
115% above nearby days
113% higher than surrounding days
115% higher than surrounding days
113% higher than surrounding days
68% higher than surrounding days
Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL
Monitor comparison window 2005-09-11 to 2005-09-21 · PM2.5 target: Baptist Childrens' Home
151% above nearby days
71% higher than surrounding days
151% higher than surrounding days
71% higher than surrounding days
34% higher than surrounding days
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL
Monitor comparison window 2005-09-11 to 2005-09-21 · PM2.5 target: Melbourne
41% above nearby days
79% higher than surrounding days
41% higher than surrounding days
79% higher than surrounding days
59% higher than surrounding days
Source: U.S. EPA AirData daily observations and, where available, nearby ASOS/AWOS surface observations. Values are descriptive medians over the retained monitor set; missing measurements remain missing. Transport and source evidence remain separate layers because this instrument pattern does not assign a cause by itself.
Episode peak
-- cigarettes
The smoke map's scale, replayed over this event: the surface interpolates between covered metros' daily records, framed to the affected region. Hover for a reading, click a metro to pin it to the card. Days a monitor did not report draw nothing.
Views from the selected metro
Select a metro on the map to see nearby cameras. Where an operator archive reaches the event, drag the divider to compare two moments, adjust either date and time, or play the available event-day frames. Camera imagery is visual context, not an air-quality measurement or proof of smoke.
No useful public camera views are currently available within 80 km of this metro.
| Metro | Peak PM2.5 | Cigarettes, whole event | Peak day | All-time standing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jacksonville, FL | 46.8 µg/m³ | 9.6 | Sep 15, 2005 | #12 of its top days |
| Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL | 46.4 µg/m³ | 7.7 | Sep 15, 2005 | #4 of its top days |
| Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL | 44.1 µg/m³ | 7.5 | Sep 15, 2005 | #9 of its top days |
| Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, FL | 43.6 µg/m³ | 2.0 | Sep 16, 2005 | #3 of its top days |
| Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL | 42 µg/m³ | 1.9 | Sep 16, 2005 | #5 of its top days |
| Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL | 40.2 µg/m³ | 1.8 | Sep 16, 2005 | #2 of its top days |
"Cigarettes, whole event" totals a metro's ranked event days at 22 µg/m³ per cigarette: what a person outdoors there breathed across the event, as the illustration. "All-time standing" is where this episode's days sit in each metro's ranked record (worst-area measure, since 1999). Full local context is on each metro's Air Records page.
Public evidence library
Each card states what a source supports—and what it does not. Official records, research, reporting, community observations, and transparent inferences remain visibly different kinds of evidence.
AQS PM2.5 qualifier RA — African Dust.
EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RA, African Dust.) on 2 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2005-09-16, identifying windblown or transported dust as affecting the samples. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
AQS PM2.5 qualifier RA — African Dust.
EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RA, African Dust.) on 2 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2005-09-15, identifying windblown or transported dust as affecting the samples. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
AQS PM2.5 qualifier RA — African Dust.
EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RA, African Dust.) on 2 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2005-09-17, identifying windblown or transported dust as affecting the samples. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
EPA monitor flag EPA attached an exceptional-event qualifier to the affected samples. The agency flagged the measurement itself; no separate agency record describes the event.
This episode was grouped from the monitor record by the catalog pipeline and given its cause from the evidence listed above. It has not been individually reviewed and signed off, so its boundaries, cause, and name may change as evidence accumulates. Grouping policy common_sense_root_cause_grouping.v2. The cause label reflects the assembled evidence above, not an IAQng detection formula. If it is wrong, tell us.