Mixed causes EPA monitor flag
Daily PM2.5 peaked at 72.4 µg/m³ near Tulsa across 3 covered metros home to 3.2 million people. 1 metro recorded their worst day on record; 2 placed a top-ten day.
Counting the extra PM2.5 above each metro's typical day, this event handed the average affected resident ≈ 2.3 cigarettes. Across everyone living in the affected metros, that is the collective equivalent of ≈ 7.4 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
Agency and NASA evidence supports a mixed event involving transported dust and smoke from Oklahoma and eastern Kansas fires.
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 · Mar 14, 2025 official
EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IJ, High Winds.) on 2 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2025-03-14, identifying windblown or transported dust 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 · Mar 14, 2025 official
EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IJ, High Winds.) on 48 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2025-03-14, identifying windblown or transported dust as affecting the samples. An informational qualifier is an official submitting-agency flag, not a request for exclusion or an EPA-concurred determination.
Kansas Department of Health and Environment · Mar 14, 2025 official
KDHE reported that winds transported dust and smoke from Oklahoma wildfires and eastern Kansas fires into Kansas.
See every retained source and limitation ↓
Sequence: Tulsa (Mar 14) → Oklahoma City (Mar 14) → Wichita (Mar 14)
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 (IJ, High Winds.) on 2 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2025-03-14, identifying windblown or transported dust as affecting the samples. An informational qualifier is an official…
View supporting source ↗Air-mass movement
KDHE reported that winds transported dust and smoke from Oklahoma wildfires and eastern Kansas fires into Kansas.
View transport source ↗Local response
EPA monitors recorded the event across 3 metros. The peak daily concentration is roughly 3.3 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 “Mixed causes” explanation; it does not assign the cause by itself.
Oklahoma City, OK
Monitor comparison window 2025-03-11 to 2025-03-17 · PM2.5 target: OKC NORTH
689% above nearby days
88% higher than surrounding days
1392% higher than surrounding days
689% higher than surrounding days
1392% higher than surrounding days
About the same as surrounding days
15% lower than surrounding days
Adjacent observations available
About the same as surrounding days
About the same as surrounding days
About the same as surrounding days
88% higher than surrounding days
Tulsa, OK
Monitor comparison window 2025-03-11 to 2025-03-17 · PM2.5 target: TULSA CENTRAL
547% above nearby days
101% higher than surrounding days
1031% higher than surrounding days
547% higher than surrounding days
1031% higher than surrounding days
15% lower than surrounding days
45% lower than surrounding days
33% lower than surrounding days
About the same as surrounding days
8% lower than surrounding days
5% higher than surrounding days
101% higher than surrounding days
Wichita, KS
Monitor comparison window 2025-03-11 to 2025-03-17 · PM2.5 target: PECK
306% above nearby days
827% higher than surrounding days
306% higher than surrounding days
827% higher 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.
| Metro | Peak PM2.5 | Cigarettes, whole event | Peak day | All-time standing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tulsa, OK | 72.4 µg/m³ | 3.3 | Mar 14, 2025 | #2 of its top days |
| Oklahoma City, OK | 59.8 µg/m³ | 2.7 | Mar 14, 2025 | Worst day on record |
| Wichita, KS | 39.2 µg/m³ | 1.8 | Mar 14, 2025 | #15 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 IJ — High Winds.
EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IJ, High Winds.) on 2 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2025-03-14, identifying windblown or transported dust 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 IJ — High Winds.
EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IJ, High Winds.) on 48 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2025-03-14, identifying windblown or transported dust as affecting the samples. An informational qualifier is an official submitting-agency flag, not a request for exclusion or an EPA-concurred determination.
NWS Dust Storm record, WICHITA, KANSAS (2025-03-14)
Reduced visibility down to 200-400 yards in Leoti from blowing dust. Quarter mile visibility measured at the AWOS on the south side of town.
KDHE Issues Air Quality Health Advisory due to Dust and Smoke
KDHE reported that winds transported dust and smoke from Oklahoma wildfires and eastern Kansas fires into Kansas.
NASA documented that March 14 hurricane-force winds in Oklahoma triggered a massive dust storm and fanned fast-moving grass fires.
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.