Today I woke up to an audio alarm that my station has elevated radiation levels. I then noticed that my outside radiation monitoring station and the St. Charles Illinois outside station (independent station - 70 miles away) are both showing elevated levels of radiation detected. Here is a screen capture showing both stations and their status: https://ibb.co/bw9YOS

While doing research today looking for a source of the radiation, I have not yet been able to find anything that stands out to me. Our nearest nuclear plant is the Byron plant but I'm unaware of any reactor outages there currently. I'll update later if I have more information.

Let me add that while these levels are obviously elevated, these levels would not be considered a nuclear emergency.

I just changed my outside radiation station filter at 10:18 CST on April 10th, 2018.

I just changed my outside radiation station filter at 10:30 CST on May 16th, 2018.

At 3:41 CST on June 13, 2018 I replaced my outside radiation monitoring station filter.

Unfortunately on June 16th my outside radiation monitoring stations geiger counter became separated from the HEPA filter that I use with the unit to assist in the radiation detection. This shows on the graph. As a result, my normal background radiation reading on NETC records has dropped. Now that I have corrected my units problem, I expect my site to have a short-term elevated radiation reading according to NTC's previously recorded low (June 16th - June 24th) readings.

Last night around 11 p.m. CST I went outside (Illinois-Wisconsin border) and smelled a burning smell. It smelled like burning wood. Today I woke up and looking at the NETC radiation map, I see many stations (EPA and NETC) showing elevated levels or radiation. I went to the EPA AirNow map to see if I could find a source and it was easy to see the fires in Colorado are where it is coming from, traveling through the jet stream. You can view my AirNow screen shot here: https://s22.postimg.cc/fszhoy7lt/Screenshot_2018-07-03_at_7.17.40_AM.png

The Colorado fire is not slowing down and it's not getting any smaller either, as seen here: https://s22.postimg.cc/kohktlnv5/Screenshot_2018-07-04_at_10.12.15_AM.png

My radiation readings are still elevated from my normal range and considering my HEPA filter is almost 30 days old while still getting these elevated readings clearly means that if I changed my filter (allowing more airflow) my readings would be much higher than they currently show. Today the EPA AirNow website does show my area in yellow, which is listed as:



Here is a screen shot from the EPA AirNow website: https://s22.postimg.cc/750qnortt/Screenshot_2018-07-04_at_10.05.36_AM.png

At 12:36 p.m. CST today (Sunday July 15, 2018) I changed my outside HEPA radiation monitoring station filter.

Please expect a slight elevation in radiation detection as a result due to this increased airflow.

I'm not sure why, but I have had several days of slightly higher background radiation readings than normal for my area. I believe it is likely the higher humidity that we have been having, that causes the upper atmosphere radiation to attach to the moisture.

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I too noticed your Noticeably/Significant-Increased readings that were concentrated in the Illinois and neighboring states for the last few days (but subsiding now). Something extra was sure enough going on ... In My Opinion.

Here in Montrose, CO, USA there were 3 noticeable nights of elevated readings; however nothing like what you experienced ... that I cannot exclusively explain.

Look at my Montrose, CO, USA Chart.

My suspicion for my night-time increase was/is Cosmic related ... I use/reference the following two links:

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/ace- ... solar-wind

https://iswa.ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov/IswaSystemWebApp/
In this link: Click the "Magnetosphere" TAB, and the number "9" BUTTON ... I look at (or click on) the 1st Three Images: 1. MagnetoPause Position, 2. Solar Wind Velocity, and 3. Magnetic Field Lines. It takes a bit of getting use to but click the video-looking-button in the bottom-right corner of any of the 3; then choose advanced and put the number 200 in to the "Number of Frames". Everything is in UTC Time.

Just Something Else to Consider,

Farley
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