newson6.com corroborates
Wildfire smoke Possible
2017-03-21 Tulsa, OK wildfire-smoke episode
Daily PM2.5 peaked at 35.9 µg/m³ near Tulsa across 1 covered metro home to 1.1 million people.
Counting the extra PM2.5 above each metro's typical day, this event handed the average affected resident ≈ 1.2 cigarettes. Across everyone living in the affected metros, that is the collective equivalent of ≈ 1.3 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
The basis for “Wildfire smoke”
NOAA observed smoke from multiple eastern Oklahoma fires during the exact overnight window, but did not establish surface impact at the Tulsa monitor.
Possible This is a transparent hypothesis supported by limited evidence or an explicit inference, not a definitive attribution.
newson6.com corroborates
Smoke Concerns Washington County Residents
NOAA Satellite Services Division hypothesis
Smoke analysis through 0211 UTC March 21, 2017
NOAA analysts reported several large fires in eastern Oklahoma producing light smoke plumes moving northeast into southern Missouri through 0211 UTC March 21.
Evidence path
From source to city
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.
- 1Open question
Source or mechanism
Source not directly documented
The catalog has a grouping hypothesis, but no retained source directly establishes the proposed cause.
- 2Documented
Air-mass movement
Transport into the affected region is documented
NOAA analysts reported several large fires in eastern Oklahoma producing light smoke plumes moving northeast into southern Missouri through 0211 UTC March 21.
View transport source ↗ - 3Documented
Local response
35.9 µg/m³ near Tulsa
EPA monitors recorded the event across 1 metro. The peak daily concentration is roughly 1.6 cigarette-equivalents at the outdoor daily rate.
Inspect the pollutant and weather signals ↓
Event autopsy
What the instruments saw
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.
Tulsa, OK
Monitor comparison window 2017-03-18 to 2017-03-24 · PM2.5 target: Glenpool
180% above nearby days
14% lower than surrounding days
47% higher than surrounding days
Pollution fingerprint
Metro-wide median of reporting monitors PM2.5 34.6 µg/m³
180% higher than surrounding days
Before16.9 µg/m³ Event34.6 µg/m³ After11.2 µg/m³
Carbon monoxide 0.378 ppm
47% higher than surrounding days
Before0.256 ppm Event0.378 ppm After0.242 ppm
Nitrogen dioxide 9.21 ppb
47% higher than surrounding days
Before6.43 ppb Event9.21 ppb After4.85 ppb
Sulfur dioxide 0.576 ppb
9% lower than surrounding days
Before0.377 ppb Event0.576 ppb After0.946 ppb
Ozone 0.044 ppm
8% higher than surrounding days
Before0.041 ppm Event0.044 ppm After0.041 ppm
Atmospheric conditions
Nearby EPA weather observationsAbout the same as surrounding days
About the same as surrounding days
14% lower 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.
Measured daily PM2.5 at EPA monitors, as cigarette-equivalents
EPA monitors sit in metro areas, so the colour clusters there. Land between and beyond
them is unmeasured, not clean: this map shows where IAQng has readings, not the extent
of the smoke.
—
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.
Affected metros
| Metro | Peak PM2.5 | Cigarettes, whole event | Peak day | All-time standing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tulsa, OK | 35.9 µg/m³ | 1.6 | Mar 21, 2017 | #21 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
What supports this account
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.
Smoke analysis through 0211 UTC March 21, 2017
NOAA Satellite Services Division
NOAA analysts reported several large fires in eastern Oklahoma producing light smoke plumes moving northeast into southern Missouri through 0211 UTC March 21.
What it supports
This source supports a possible mechanism or occurrence; it does not establish the cause by itself.
Limit
The analysis does not distinguish wildfire from other wildland fire or prove ground-level smoke in Tulsa.
What remains uncertain
- Satellite plume evidence is not proof of surface exposure, so confidence is capped at possible.
Status and provenance
Possible This is a transparent hypothesis supported by limited evidence or an explicit inference, not a definitive attribution.
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.