Wildfire smoke EPA monitor flag
Daily PM2.5 peaked at 56.5 µg/m³ near Minneapolis across 1 covered metro home to 3.8 million people.
Counting the extra PM2.5 above each metro's typical day, this event handed the average affected resident ≈ 2.1 cigarettes. Across everyone living in the affected metros, that is the collective equivalent of ≈ 8.0 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 supplied evidence supports wildfire smoke as the root cause of this event. The supplied record does not establish a coherent shared occurrence with neighboring candidates, so the episode remains event-specific.
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 · May 13, 2024 official
EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IF, Fire - Canadian.) on 240 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2024-05-13, 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.
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency · May 12, 2024 official
MPCA's statewide alert, including the Twin Cities, states that heavy smoke from wildfires in northeast British Columbia moved into Minnesota and would sweep south through May 13.
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 (IF, Fire - Canadian.) on 240 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2024-05-13, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the samples. An informational qualifier is an official…
View supporting source ↗Air-mass movement
MPCA's statewide alert, including the Twin Cities, states that heavy smoke from wildfires in northeast British Columbia moved into Minnesota and would sweep south through May 13.
View transport source ↗Local response
EPA monitors recorded the event across 1 metro. The peak daily concentration is roughly 2.6 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 “Wildfire smoke” explanation; it does not assign the cause by itself.
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI
Monitor comparison window 2024-05-10 to 2024-05-16 · PM2.5 target: Apple Valley
346% above nearby days
11% higher than surrounding days
70% higher than surrounding days
346% higher than surrounding days
70% higher than surrounding days
51% higher than surrounding days
32% higher than surrounding days
52% lower than surrounding days
14% lower than surrounding days
11% 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | 56.5 µg/m³ | 2.6 | May 13, 2024 | #19 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 IF — Fire - Canadian.
EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IF, Fire - Canadian.) on 240 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2024-05-13, 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.
Air quality alert issued immediately due to wildfire smoke for all of Minnesota
MPCA's statewide alert, including the Twin Cities, states that heavy smoke from wildfires in northeast British Columbia moved into Minnesota and would sweep south through May 13.
Cited authorities: Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
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.