Smoke, not clouds, caused hazy skies
Solar power production was at least briefly impacted
The hazy skies overhead this week that were a result of smoke from the
West Coast wildfires lowered the amount of solar radiation in New York about 25 percent, a level that scientists say at least brief ly impacted the state’s solar power production.
Scientists and researchers at the University at Albany’s New York State Mesonet, a network of 126 weather stations that the university built with the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (DHSES), have been monitoring the situation closely and said that most of the smoke high overhead was blurring the skies on Tuesday and Wednesday.
There was still a lot of smoke in the atmosphere on Thursday, but it was
also mixed with some clouds from an incoming cold front that is expected to help push the smoke out of the region on Friday.
Jerry Brotzge, the program manager at NYS Mesonet, said their organization measures solar radiation — and other atmospheric conditions — at the 126 stations that were built with funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency following Hurricane Sandy. There is at least one station in every New York county.
Normally, “you get a lot of clear skies this time of year,” he said. “We’re seeing a reduction of about 25 percent in the solar radiation coming in . ... The fires are thousands of miles away, but just the way the jet stream carries the smoke ... it’s one of those events you don’t expect. I’m sure it’s enough of a reduction; it’s something (energy providers) had to readjust for.”
Weather models don’t typically include smoke or predict weather based on its presence in the atmosphere, which is why forecasted temperatures were a few degrees lower than expected this week.
Brotzge said Mesonet also has 17 “profiler” network stations across the state that enable them to see the smoke that’s more than a mile high in the atmosphere.
“The last two days have been clear but all of the haze was smoke,” Brotzge said Thursday afternoon. “Today, we have a cold front moving in and we have a lot of clouds. It’s helping at least ... but the nice sunrises and sunsets the last couple days have been due to the smoke.”
“We should see improving sky conditions (Friday),” said Jennifer Vogt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albany. “I don’t recall the wildfire season being that bad last year but it does occur.”
The smoke that has been limiting sunlight for a few days over the northeast and other parts of the country has also reached Europe.
Officials have described the wildfires raging in California and other western states as the worst in nearly two decades.