Estimating Prescribed Fire Smoke Impacts

About

VSmoke-Web is a web-based implementation of VSmoke (Lavdas, 1996) and is designed to assist with planning prescribed burns in the Southern United States. VSmoke is a simple gaussian smoke dispersion model that calculates isopleths of surface smoke concentration. Output from the model represents peak hourly concentrations of PM2.5 or visibility (under development). Contour values and their colors correspond to the PM 2.5 thresholds for the Air Quality Index (AQI) and reflect potential health impacts ranging from moderate to hazardous (Visit AirNow for mode AQI info). Burn location can be set by clicking on the map or by entering the Latitude and Longitude. Note that the Latitude and Longitude should be entered in decimal degrees (30.38,-84.37) or degrees+decimal minutes (30 22.80, -84 22.20 - note the space between degree and minute values).

AQI

Levels of Health Concern AQI Value Hourly PM 2.5 Conc. Meaning
Good
0 to 50
0 to 38
Air quality is considered satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk
Moderate
51 to 100
39 to 88
Air quality is acceptable; however, for some pollutants there may be a moderate health concern for a very small number of people who are unusually sensitive to air pollution.
Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups
101 to 150
89 to 138
Members of sensitive groups may experience health effects. The general public is not likely to be affected.
Unhealthy
151 to 200
139 to 351
Everyone may begin to experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects.
Very Unhealthy
201 to 300
352 to 526
Health alert: everyone may experience more serious health effects
Hazardous
301 to 500
> 526
Health warnings of emergency conditions. The entire population is more likely to be affected.

Fire & Weather Info

Explanation