Wildfire smoke
Mid-June 2008 Mid-Atlantic Evans Road and South One wildfire-smoke episode
Named sources South One Fire Evans Road Fire 40,704 acres , NC · ICS-209-PLUS NC-NCS-08-048-065
Daily PM2.5 peaked at 99 µg/m³ near Raleigh across 6 covered metros home to 12 million people. 3 metros recorded their worst day on record; 5 placed a top-ten day.
Counting the extra PM2.5 above each metro's typical day, this event handed the average affected resident ≈ 4.3 cigarettes. Across everyone living in the affected metros, that is the collective equivalent of ≈ 51 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.
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.
What happened, in the record
Qualified frozen evidence supports wildfire smoke as the broad root cause and supports grouping the contemporaneous affected events into one time-bounded episode. Qualified frozen evidence supports wildfire smoke as the broad root cause and supports grouping the contemporaneous affected events into one time-bounded episode. Qualified frozen evidence supports wildfire smoke as the broad root cause and supports grouping the contemporaneous affected events into one time-bounded episode. Qualified frozen evidence supports wildfire smoke as the broad root cause and supports grouping the contemporaneous affected events into one time-bounded episode. Qualified frozen evidence supports wildfire smoke as the broad root cause and supports grouping the contemporaneous affected events into one time-bo
Sequence: Raleigh (Jun 12) → Durham (Jun 12) → Greensboro (Jun 13) → Winston (Jun 13) → Virginia Beach (Jun 14) → Washington (Jun 14)
Affected metros
| Metro | Peak PM2.5 | Cigarettes, whole event | Peak day | All-time standing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raleigh, NC | 99 µg/m³ | 4.5 | Jun 12, 2008 | Worst day on record |
| Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC | 85.7 µg/m³ | 16.5 | Jun 14, 2008 | #2 of its top days |
| Durham-Chapel Hill, NC | 71.7 µg/m³ | 3.3 | Jun 12, 2008 | Worst day on record |
| Greensboro-High Point, NC | 68.6 µg/m³ | 3.1 | Jun 13, 2008 | Worst day on record |
| Winston-Salem, NC | 60.8 µg/m³ | 2.8 | Jun 13, 2008 | #2 of its top days |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 57 µg/m³ | 2.6 | Jun 14, 2008 | #16 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.
The evidence
EPA AQS monitor qualifier 13
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 1 PM2.5 sample in the candidate CBSA on 2008-06-10, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the sample. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 1 PM2.5 sample in the candidate CBSA on 2008-06-12, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the sample. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier IT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 24 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2008-06-12, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the samples. An informational qualifier is an official submitting-agency flag, not a request for exclusion or an EPA-concurred determination.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 1 PM2.5 sample in the candidate CBSA on 2008-06-12, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the sample. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier IT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 8 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2008-06-13, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the samples. An informational qualifier is an official submitting-agency flag, not a request for exclusion or an EPA-concurred determination.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 1 PM2.5 sample in the candidate CBSA on 2008-06-13, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the sample. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier E — Forest Fire. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (E, Forest Fire.) on 1 PM2.5 sample in the candidate CBSA on 2008-06-12, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the sample. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 3 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2008-06-14, identifying wildfire smoke 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 RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 2 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2008-06-14, identifying wildfire smoke 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 RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 3 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2008-06-17, identifying wildfire smoke 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 RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 3 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2008-06-20, identifying wildfire smoke 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 RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 1 PM2.5 sample in the candidate CBSA on 2008-06-21, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the sample. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
- +1 more EPA AQS records on file
Agency and publisher pages 5
- N.C. Exceptional Event (June, 2008) NCDEQ's exceptional-event demonstration identifies the June 12–13 Raleigh/Durham PM2.5 impact as smoke from the Evans Road Fire and estimates smoke contributed at least 62% of particulate mass at the Durham study site.
- Fires in Virginia, North Carolina NASA documented thick smoke from the Evans Road Fire in North Carolina and South One Fire in the Great Dismal Swamp traveling up the East Coast in mid-June and affecting air quality in numerous cities and towns.
- Wildfire smoke, odor reach Triangle Contemporaneous reporting said a wind shift could carry smoke from the eastern North Carolina Evans Road wildfire to Raleigh, Durham, and Greensboro.
- Exceptional Events in 2008 Regional exceptional-events material discusses the June 2008 fire-smoke episode and includes historical Virginia Beach PM2.5 data, supporting treatment as part of a broader regional episode.
- Forests and Rangelands Success Story: Great Dismal Swamp Firefighting Government fire documentation reports that the South One Fire ignited June 9 and that smoke lingered over the fire and surrounding communities for many weeks; it does not attribute this specific Virginia Beach PM2.5 observation.
What remains uncertain
- AQS qualifiers are submitting-agency causal flags and do not by themselves establish EPA concurrence.
Status and provenance
Research preview: this record carries research-only status and its boundaries, cause, and name may change as evidence review completes. Grouping policy common_sense_root_cause_grouping.v2. The cause label reflects the assembled evidence above, not an IAQng detection formula.