ARL Weekly News – July 22, 2024

HYSPLIT tracks plume from industrial fire

The NWS Weather Forecasting Office provided support via HYSPLIT plumes for an industrial fire in northwest Portland, OR. The fire was classified as a four-alarm fire at a metal recycling facility scrap yard containing cars, appliances, and other large metal items slated to be shredded for recycling. A large, black smoke plume smelling of burned plastic that continued to get worse throughout the day was visible for miles and raised concerns on the impact of that smoke on public health.

Contributing to a study on the wide-spread impacts of the East Palestine train derailment

An important publication was published recently by authors that used extensive precipitation volume and chemistry data collected by the National Atmospheric Deposition Program National Trends Network (NTN) to estimate what compounds were spread and the total affected area from the train derailment in East Palestine, OH last year. ARL directly contributed to this study by the operation or funding of four of the NTN sites used for the study. The authors also used the HYSPLIT model to calculate forward trajectories of the smoke. Read more.