Wildfire smoke
Southeastern Appalachian wildfire-smoke episode, 2016-11-07 through 2016-11-18
Daily PM2.5 peaked at 127.3 µg/m³ near Greenville across 9 covered metros home to 14 million people. 5 metros recorded their worst day on record; 8 placed a top-ten day.
Counting the extra PM2.5 above each metro's typical day, this event handed the average affected resident ≈ 3.8 cigarettes. Across everyone living in the affected metros, that is the collective equivalent of ≈ 51 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.
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.
What happened, in the record
Qualified frozen evidence supports wildfire smoke as the broad cause and supports grouping 5 records into the same time-bounded occurrence. Qualified frozen evidence supports wildfire smoke as the broad cause and supports grouping 5 records into the same time-bounded occurrence. Qualified frozen evidence supports wildfire smoke as the broad cause and supports grouping 5 records into the same time-bounded occurrence. Qualified frozen evidence supports wildfire smoke as the broad cause and supports grouping 5 records into the same time-bounded occurrence. Qualified frozen evidence supports wildfire smoke as the broad cause and supports grouping 5 records into the same time-bounded occurrence.
Sequence: Knoxville (Nov 7) → Augusta (Nov 11) → Greenville (Nov 14) → Chattanooga (Nov 14) → Atlanta (Nov 14) → Columbia (Nov 15) → Charleston (Nov 15) → Raleigh (Nov 18) → Durham (Nov 18)
Affected metros
| Metro | Peak PM2.5 | Cigarettes, whole event | Peak day | All-time standing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, SC | 127.3 µg/m³ | 14.3 | Nov 14, 2016 | Worst day on record |
| Chattanooga, TN-GA | 105.7 µg/m³ | 4.8 | Nov 14, 2016 | Worst day on record |
| Knoxville, TN | 89.4 µg/m³ | 10.3 | Nov 8, 2016 | Worst day on record |
| Columbia, SC | 87.7 µg/m³ | 6.8 | Nov 15, 2016 | Worst day on record |
| Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC | 84.3 µg/m³ | 3.8 | Nov 11, 2016 | Worst day on record |
| Charleston-North Charleston, SC | 64.8 µg/m³ | 5.6 | Nov 16, 2016 | #3 of its top days |
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | 56.2 µg/m³ | 2.6 | Nov 14, 2016 | #18 of its top days |
| Raleigh, NC | 49.3 µg/m³ | 2.2 | Nov 18, 2016 | #4 of its top days |
| Durham-Chapel Hill, NC | 42.7 µg/m³ | 1.9 | Nov 18, 2016 | #6 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.
The evidence
EPA AQS monitor qualifier 23
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier IT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 8 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2016-11-08, 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.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier IT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 3 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2016-11-07, 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.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 17 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2016-11-11, identifying wildfire smoke 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 IT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 25 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2016-11-11, 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.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 21 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2016-11-11, identifying wildfire smoke 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 RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 2 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2016-11-14, identifying wildfire smoke 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 RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 24 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2016-11-14, identifying wildfire smoke 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 IT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 25 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2016-11-14, 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.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 20 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2016-11-16, identifying wildfire smoke 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 IT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 122 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2016-11-15, 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.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier IT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 7 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2016-11-14, 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.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier IT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted informational qualifier (IT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 23 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2016-11-16, 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.
- +11 more EPA AQS records on file
NWS Air Quality Alert 1
- Air Quality Alert AQAILM An archived NWS Air Quality Alert for Columbia, SC, issued 2016-11-15T13:24Z, explicitly identifies wildfire smoke. IEM is the archive, not the official system of record.
Agency and publisher pages 6
- Smoke Text Product NOAA issued a satellite-imagery smoke narrative during the November 8 regional southeastern wildfire episode; it supports grouping the Knoxville event with that smoke episode.
- Impact of the 2016 Southeastern US Wildfires on the Vertical Distribution of Ozone and Aerosol at Huntsville, Alabama Satellite and modeling analysis identifies substantial smoke emissions from Southern Appalachian wildfires over the southeastern U.S. during November 12-14, 2016, including the Chattanooga/Greenville regional episode.
- Rapid Reaction: Smoky Skies Create Unhealthy Air Quality The State Climate Office identifies November 18-19, 2016 as the Triangle's prior multi-day Code Orange PM2.5 event and attributes it to smoke wafting from Appalachian wildfires.
- Southeast's Air Quality Is Worse Than Some Chinese Cities Right Now, Thanks to Wildfire Smoke Contemporaneous reporting documented wildfire-smoke haze and AQI above 150 at locations in Tennessee, South Carolina, and Georgia on November 14.
- FIRST ALERT WEATHER: Air quality alert for Lowcountry extended until Thursday Contemporaneous reporting says South Carolina's air-quality alert for the Lowcountry was extended because ongoing wildfires were producing smoke over the region.
- Visibility Guide to Smoke and Air Quality Now Available The state environmental agency documented active western North Carolina wildfires, smoke transport downwind, and unhealthy particle pollution during the November 2016 episode.
What remains uncertain
- AQS qualifiers are submitting-agency causal flags and do not by themselves establish EPA concurrence.
- The evidence resolves the broad cause but does not require a named fire, facility, or incident.
Status and provenance
Research preview: this record carries research-only status and its boundaries, cause, and name may change as evidence review completes. Grouping policy common_sense_root_cause_grouping.v2. The cause label reflects the assembled evidence above, not an IAQng detection formula.