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East Palestine burn-off smoke diverted from Miami Valley by wind direction

NTSB uncrewed aerial vehicle footage of the burning railcars in East Palestine, Ohio. The drone is the safest means to assess the situation.
NTSB
NTSB uncrewed aerial vehicle footage of the burning railcars in East Palestine, Ohio. The drone is the safest means to assess the situation.

Concerns about air quality issues stemming from the train derailment and subsequent chemical burn off in East Palestine last month remain in some communities near the disaster. However, local public health officials said they aren't concerned, at this moment, about airborne contamination from the burn-off reaching the Miami Valley.

Smoke from the East Palestine chemical burnoff was sent hundreds of miles by northeastern winds all the way into Canada last month, according to HYSPLIT modeling data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Air Resource Laboratory (see figure below).

HYSPLIT runs from the East Palestine derailment, which continued to burn several days after the accident.
NOAA
HYSPLIT runs from the East Palestine derailment, which continued to burn several days after the accident.

The direction of the wind is what is significant for people here in southwest Ohio. Because wind mostly travels west to east through the state, smoke coming from East Palestine, a village that is two hundred miles east of Dayton, never really had a chance to reach the Miami Valley, health officials said.

RELATED: Here's why it's hard to clean up toxic waste from the East Palestine train derailment

A spokesperson for the Regional Air Pollution Control Agency told WYSO that because of Ohio's established west to east meteorological patterns, they weren't expecting air contamination from the burn-off. Their regular air quality monitoring since the burn-off backed up that approach–they said nothing unusual has shown up in test results since the derailment.

Chris Welter is a reporter and corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms.

Chris Welter is the Managing Editor at The Eichelberger Center for Community Voices at WYSO.

Chris got his start in radio in 2017 when he completed a six-month training at the Center for Community Voices. Most recently, he worked as a substitute host and the Environment Reporter at WYSO.