Wildfire smoke
2011-06-21 through 2011-06-23 wildfire-smoke episode affecting Charleston-North Charleston, SC
Named source Honey Prairie Fire 309,200 acres , GA · ICS-209-PLUS GA-OKR-000001
Daily PM2.5 peaked at 42.6 µg/m³ near Charleston across 1 covered metro home to 869,940 people.
Counting the extra PM2.5 above each metro's typical day, this event handed the average affected resident ≈ 4.4 cigarettes. Across everyone living in the affected metros, that is the collective equivalent of ≈ 3.9 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
Official monitor qualifiers support wildfire smoke on June 21-23, and the supplied satellite analysis documents Honey Prairie Fire smoke transport and recirculation in the Charleston plume environment.
Affected metros
| Metro | Peak PM2.5 | Cigarettes, whole event | Peak day | All-time standing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charleston-North Charleston, SC | 42.6 µg/m³ | 5.6 | Jun 23, 2011 | #13 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 3
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier IT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 52 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2011-06-21, 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 IT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 53 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2011-06-22, 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 IT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 46 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2011-06-23, 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.
Agency and publisher pages 1
- Pyrocumulus clouds and dense smoke from fires in Georgia Satellite analysis documented dense smoke from the Honey Prairie Fire in southeastern Georgia on June 20 and substantial smoke transport and recirculation during June 21–22; it used a Charleston sounding to characterize the plume environment.
What remains uncertain
- Agency-submitted AQS qualifiers are causal flags but 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.