Other
Eastern Seaboard 8–9 August pollution recirculation episode
Daily PM2.5 peaked at 53.4 µg/m³ near Baltimore across 3 covered metros home to 11 million people.
Counting the extra PM2.5 above each metro's typical day, this event handed the average affected resident ≈ 2.1 cigarettes. Across everyone living in the affected metros, that is the collective equivalent of ≈ 23 million cigarettes. An awareness illustration of outdoor exposure at 22 µg/m³ per cigarette (Berkeley Earth), counting only the event's ranked days; not a medical dose.
Episode peak
-- cigarettes
The smoke map's scale, replayed over this event: the surface interpolates between covered metros' daily records, framed to the affected region. Hover for a reading, click a metro to pin it to the card. Days a monitor did not report draw nothing.
What happened, in the record
The supplied study identifies an 8–9 August Eastern Seaboard pollution episode with extensive aerosol loading and frontal-system recirculation affecting the candidate’s region.
Sequence: Virginia Beach (Aug 8) → Baltimore (Aug 9) → Washington (Aug 9)
Affected metros
| Metro | Peak PM2.5 | Cigarettes, whole event | Peak day | All-time standing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD | 53.4 µg/m³ | 2.4 | Aug 9, 2001 | #16 of its top days |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 50.5 µg/m³ | 2.3 | Aug 9, 2001 | #25 of its top days |
| Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC | 50 µg/m³ | 4.2 | Aug 8, 2001 | #13 of its top days |
"Cigarettes, whole event" totals a metro's ranked event days at 22 µg/m³ per cigarette: what a person outdoors there breathed across the event, as the illustration. "All-time standing" is where this episode's days sit in each metro's ranked record (worst-area measure, since 1999). Full local context is on each metro's Air Records page.
The evidence
Agency and publisher pages 1
- Remote Sensing of Fine Particulate Matter and Ozone During an Air Pollution Episode Over the Eastern US Reports an 8–9 August 2001 Eastern Seaboard pollution episode with extensive aerosol loading, characterized by recirculation associated with a frontal system; supports regional transport/recirculation context for the Virginia Beach–Baltimore–Washington event, but does not apportion a specific PM2.5 source.
What remains uncertain
- The study does not apportion a specific PM2.5 source.
Status and provenance
Research preview: this record carries research-only status and its boundaries, cause, and name may change as evidence review completes. Grouping policy common_sense_root_cause_grouping.v2. The cause label reflects the assembled evidence above, not an IAQng detection formula.