Study validates accuracy of NOAA’s smoke forecasting model during the Camp Fire

Smoke from the Camp Fire blots out sunlight. Credit: NOAA

The Camp Fire in Paradise, California, was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California's history, and the most expensive natural disaster in the world in 2018. The wildfire claimed 88 lives and blanketed millions of people in Northern California with dense smoke for two weeks.

The Camp Fire is just one of many major wildfires that have choked the summer skies across the United States in recent years, a development that has increased demand for accurate air quality forecasting. A new study published [ today ] in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, finds that the  HRRR-smoke model developed by NOAA’s Global Systems Laboratory (GSL) accurately predicted the general movement and concentration of the Camp Fire’s smoke during the initial week of the lengthy blaze.

Read more at the link below.