Wildfire smoke
June 3-6, 2024 Mexico and Central America fire-smoke episode in Texas
Daily PM2.5 peaked at 63.8 µg/m³ near McAllen across 2 covered metros home to 3.7 million people. 1 metro placed a top-ten day in their record.
Counting the extra PM2.5 above each metro's typical day, this event handed the average affected resident ≈ 2.7 cigarettes. Across everyone living in the affected metros, that is the collective equivalent of ≈ 10.0 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
TCEQ evidence identifies a connected June 3-6 regional transport episode involving smoke from fires in Mexico and Central America. The overlapping McAllen and San Antonio focal events are grouped as manifestations of that occurrence. TCEQ evidence identifies a connected June 3-6 regional transport episode involving smoke from fires in Mexico and Central America. The overlapping McAllen and San Antonio focal events are grouped as manifestations of that occurrence.
Sequence: McAllen (Jun 4) → San Antonio (Jun 4)
Affected metros
| Metro | Peak PM2.5 | Cigarettes, whole event | Peak day | All-time standing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX | 63.8 µg/m³ | 7.3 | Jun 5, 2024 | #2 of its top days |
| San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX | 44.2 µg/m³ | 2.0 | Jun 4, 2024 | #12 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
EPA AQS monitor qualifier 4
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RG — Fire - Mexico/Central America. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RG, Fire - Mexico/Central America.) on 24 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2024-06-05, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the samples. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RG — Fire - Mexico/Central America. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RG, Fire - Mexico/Central America.) on 24 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2024-06-06, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the samples. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RG — Fire - Mexico/Central America. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RG, Fire - Mexico/Central America.) on 22 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2024-06-04, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the samples. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RG — Fire - Mexico/Central America. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RG, Fire - Mexico/Central America.) on 24 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2024-06-04, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the samples. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
Agency and publisher pages 1
- Summary of 2022, 2023, and 2024 Exceptional Event Demonstration for Fine Particulate Matter at Harrison, Kleberg, and Travis Counties TCEQ classifies June 3 and June 5-6 PM2.5 events in nearby Kleberg County as smoke from fires in Mexico/Central America, supporting the regional episode overlapping this McAllen event.
What remains uncertain
- Agency-submitted AQS qualifiers support attribution but do not by themselves establish EPA concurrence.
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.