Smoke Forecast - DESI

[bdloftin77]

I've found this site to be helpful. It forecasts 48 hours in advance of midnight or noon zulu time.
https://sites.gsl.noaa.gov/desi/

Hovering over the Surface tab, near the bottom choose either Surface Smoke or VI (Vertically Integrated) Smoke by clicking on "mean" to the right. The latter shows general atmospheric smoke conditions impacting visibility, and the former shows only smoke very close to the ground. On the left, choose the start date/time for the forecast. At the bottom, you can either play the forecast, or can use the slider to show where the smoke will be at a specific time. The +/- buttons control how fast it plays.

It's helpful in tempering my expectations of what the views/conditions on a hike will be like, or even postponing a certain hike if I'm feeling picky.

DESI.png

DESI Example.png

[bdloftin77]

Alternatively, another smoke forecast site option is https://airquality.weather.gov/

Under Air Quality Elements, choose Near Surface Smoke or Column Integrated Smoke. If you'd like a more detailed view of the map, changing the opacity on the right helps. And then choose a time/day on the left. Keep in mind the times are in UTC/Zulu, or currently 6 hours ahead of MDT.

Airquality.weather.gov.png

[CheapCigarMan]

Thought this was another good site.

https://the-lookout.org/

https://www.youtube.com/live/Q3-n4S57_1 ... OEJlTaPBtl