Visibility Guidelines During Wildfires

Source: Jackson County Health & Human Services

Did you know you can use your eyes to estimate the health effects from wildfire smoke? Air quality monitors may not be located nearby and may not represent real-time conditions where you are. Smoke levels can change rapidly and conditions can vary significantly at different locations. You can use visibility to estimate the air quality during wildfires. The procedure is:

1. Face away from the sun.
2. Determine the limit of your visual range by looking for tagets at known distances in miles.
3. Visual range is that point at which even high contrast objects totally disappear.
4. Use the values below to determine the local forest fire smoke category.

For more information during wildfires: see Oregon Smoke Blog at http://oregonsmoke.blogspot.com