Stagnant pollution mixture Likely
Daily PM2.5 peaked at 48.5 µg/m³ near Richmond across 1 covered metro home to 1.4 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 ≈ 1.8 cigarettes. Across everyone living in the affected metros, that is the collective equivalent of ≈ 2.4 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
MARAMA's official forecasting assessment directly analyzes Richmond's exact July 6, 1999 high-PM day and documents weak winds, a broad ridge, surface high pressure, haze, and no precipitation.
Likely Applicable reporting or a supported inference makes this the best current causal explanation.
MARAMA / Maryland Department of the Environment · Sep 30, 2004 official
MARAMA identifies Richmond's July 6, 1999 USG PM2.5 day and describes a broad upper ridge, surface high pressure, weak winds, early haze, and no precipitation—conditions favoring local and regional pollutant accumulation.
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
MARAMA identifies Richmond's July 6, 1999 USG PM2.5 day and describes a broad upper ridge, surface high pressure, weak winds, early haze, and no precipitation—conditions favoring local and regional pollutant accumulation.
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 1 metro. The peak daily concentration is roughly 2.2 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 “Stagnant pollution mixture” explanation; it does not assign the cause by itself.
Greensboro-High Point, NC
Monitor comparison window 1999-07-03 to 1999-07-09
54% above nearby days
3 calm hours observed
Haze reported during 22 hours
54% higher than surrounding days
19% higher than surrounding days
8 kt maximum · 3 of 24 observed hours calm
2 observed hours at or below 3 miles
77°F to 93°F
88% maximum
Raleigh, NC
Monitor comparison window 1999-07-03 to 1999-07-09 · PM2.5 target: Millbrook School
79% above nearby days
8 calm hours observed
Haze reported during 13 hours
79% higher than surrounding days
28% higher than surrounding days
About the same as surrounding days
21% higher than surrounding days
13 kt maximum · 8 of 24 observed hours calm
4 observed hours at or below 3 miles
75°F to 100°F
94% maximum
Richmond, VA
Monitor comparison window 1999-07-03 to 1999-07-09
54% above nearby days
19% higher than surrounding days
54% higher than surrounding days
19% higher than surrounding days
33% higher than surrounding days
77% higher than surrounding days
33% higher than surrounding days
About the same as surrounding days
About the same as surrounding days
6% higher than surrounding days
Winston-Salem, NC
Monitor comparison window 1999-07-03 to 1999-07-09 · PM2.5 target: Hattie Avenue
68% above nearby days
3 calm hours observed
Haze reported during 18 hours
68% higher than surrounding days
58% higher than surrounding days
7% higher than surrounding days
About the same as surrounding days
44% higher than surrounding days
35% higher than surrounding days
8 kt maximum · 3 of 9 observed hours calm
0 observed hours at or below 3 miles
80°F to 93.56°F
79% maximum
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Richmond, VA | 48.5 µg/m³ | 2.2 | Jul 6, 1999 | #9 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.
MARAMA / Maryland Department of the Environment
MARAMA identifies Richmond's July 6, 1999 USG PM2.5 day and describes a broad upper ridge, surface high pressure, weak winds, early haze, and no precipitation—conditions favoring local and regional pollutant accumulation.
An official source supports the attributed cause for the stated place and dates.
The assessment directly covers Richmond; the other three metros in the grouped record are not assigned this cause.
Likely Applicable reporting or a supported inference makes this the best current causal explanation.
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.