Our AQI, or Air Quality Index, has improved since smoke bellowed from atop the RISE Doro apartment complex earlier today, however a stabilizing atmospheric environment could begin to trap some of that smoke near the ground.
Typically, air temperature continues to decrease as you go higher in the atmosphere, however sometimes at night, this frame of thought flips on its head. Overnight, a temperature inversion is expected to develop, where cold air sinks toward the surface with a warm layer of air aloft. Any smoke that would billow out of the building would try to rise, but would eventually be trapped near the surface by this warm layer of air above.
Clear skies & calm winds Monday night will only improve the conditions for an inversion to develop. Besides the smell of smoke, air quality could deteriorate for several hours Tuesday morning as the smoke lingers in the lower levels near the ground.
Tuesday night will see an increase in the winds, which will greatly improve any air quality issues, however these winds, especially 50-100 feet aloft, could spread any embers in the building that aren't completely extinguished yet.
Higher wind speeds & gusts typically occur the higher in the atmosphere you rise.
