Impact to You and Air Quality

The Air Monitoring Center reports the Air Quality Index for particulate matter along the Wasatch Front.

In other areas of the state, a visibility index provides a way to judge smoke levels on a continual basis. As the smoke gets worse, the index changes and so do the guidelines for protecting yourself. Smoke concentrations tend to be very high for a few hours, then drop off dramatically.

Research has shown that the "spikes" may be what cause some of the most harmful effects. Since smoke is such a good scatterer of light, visibility changes drastically as smoke concentrations increase.

To judge visibility:

• Face away from the sun.
• Determine the limit of your visibility range by looking for targets at known distances (miles) Visible range is that point at which even the high contrast objects totally disappear.
• After determining visibility in miles, use the visibility chart to determine health effect and appropriate cautionary statement.

• Wildfires
• What is smoke?
• Managed Burns
• Impact to You and Air Quality