Fireworks EPA monitor flag
Daily PM2.5 peaked at 46.6 µg/m³ near Charlotte across 4 covered metros home to 5.3 million people. 1 metro 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 ≈ 1.3 cigarettes. Across everyone living in the affected metros, that is the collective equivalent of ≈ 7.1 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
Supplied qualified evidence supports fireworks as the root cause. The grouping includes only events linked by explicit shared episode evidence; otherwise this remains a single-event episode.
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 · Jul 4, 2021 official
EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IH, Fireworks.) on 13 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2021-07-04, identifying fireworks as affecting the samples. An informational qualifier is an official submitting-agency flag, not a request for exclusion or an EPA-concurred determination.
U.S. EPA Air Quality System and the submitting air monitoring agency · Jul 5, 2021 official
EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IH, Fireworks.) on 13 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2021-07-05, identifying fireworks as affecting the samples. An informational qualifier is an official submitting-agency flag, not a request for exclusion or an EPA-concurred determination.
U.S. EPA Air Quality System and the submitting air monitoring agency · Jul 4, 2021 official
EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RH, Fireworks.) on 48 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2021-07-04, identifying fireworks 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: Augusta (Jul 4) → Lakeland (Jul 4) → North Port (Jul 4) → Charlotte (Jul 5)
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 informational qualifier (IH, Fireworks.) on 13 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2021-07-04, identifying fireworks as affecting the samples. An informational qualifier is an official submitting-agency flag,…
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 4 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 “Fireworks” explanation; it does not assign the cause by itself.
Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC
Monitor comparison window 2021-07-01 to 2021-07-08 · PM2.5 target: Augusta
306% above nearby days
46% lower than surrounding days
405% higher than surrounding days
306% higher than surrounding days
405% higher than surrounding days
105% higher than surrounding days
24% higher than surrounding days
10% lower than surrounding days
About the same as surrounding days
About the same as surrounding days
46% lower than surrounding days
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC
Monitor comparison window 2021-07-01 to 2021-07-08 · PM2.5 target: Remount
116% above nearby days
41% lower than surrounding days
78% higher than surrounding days
116% higher than surrounding days
78% higher than surrounding days
42% higher than surrounding days
10% higher than surrounding days
57% higher than surrounding days
29% higher than surrounding days
8% lower than surrounding days
About the same as surrounding days
About the same as surrounding days
41% lower than surrounding days
Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL
Monitor comparison window 2021-07-01 to 2021-07-07 · PM2.5 target: Baptist Childrens' Home
307% above nearby days
300% higher than surrounding days
307% higher than surrounding days
300% higher than surrounding days
48% higher than surrounding days
18% lower than surrounding days
About the same as surrounding days
North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL
Monitor comparison window 2021-07-01 to 2021-07-07 · PM2.5 target: Bee Ridge Park
209% above nearby days
132% higher than surrounding days
209% higher than surrounding days
132% higher than surrounding days
16% higher than surrounding days
39% lower than surrounding days
About the same as 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC | 46.6 µg/m³ | 2.1 | Jul 5, 2021 | #5 of its top days |
| Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC | 43.5 µg/m³ | 2.0 | Jul 4, 2021 | #16 of its top days |
| Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL | 26.4 µg/m³ | 1.2 | Jul 4, 2021 | #16 of its top days |
| North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL | 25.3 µg/m³ | 1.2 | Jul 4, 2021 | #23 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 IH — Fireworks.
EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IH, Fireworks.) on 13 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2021-07-04, identifying fireworks 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 IH — Fireworks.
EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IH, Fireworks.) on 13 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2021-07-05, identifying fireworks 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 RH — Fireworks.
EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RH, Fireworks.) on 48 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2021-07-04, identifying fireworks 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 IH — Fireworks.
EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IH, Fireworks.) on 17 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2021-07-05, identifying fireworks 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 RH — Fireworks.
EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RH, Fireworks.) on 45 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2021-07-05, identifying fireworks 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 IH — Fireworks.
EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IH, Fireworks.) on 2 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2021-07-04, identifying fireworks 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 IH — Fireworks.
EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IH, Fireworks.) on 8 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2021-07-04, identifying fireworks as affecting the samples. An informational qualifier is an official submitting-agency flag, not a request for exclusion or an EPA-concurred determination.
Final Report for PM2.5 Exceedances in Georgia, 2021
The state report attributes Augusta's July 4, 2021 PM2.5 exceedance (43.5 µg/m3) to local fireworks. It does not assess the linked Charlotte observation.
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.