Phoenix Visibility Web Cameras

Superstition Mountains Gallery

To secure a representative gallery of observed air quality conditions for each scene monitoring site, a series of images are selected from the period of record and archived in several resolutions as an Image Gallery set.

The series of images making up the historical image gallery typically consists of:

The Superstition Mountains image images gallery was last updated in May 2004. Check this page again for future updates.

Image Spectrum

The following images have been selected to represent regional haze conditions corresponding to the Excellent to Very Poor categories of the Visibility Index Scale.

  • Excellent

    Camera View A clean December day with excellent visibility throughout the Phoenix monitoring region.
  • Good

    Camera View Typical good visibility day in February with a slight milky appearance of regional haze over the Superstition Mountains monitoring vista.
  • Fair

    Camera View Typical fair visibility day in October with a moderate appearance of regional haze over the Superstition Mountains monitoring vista.
  • Poor

    Camera View Poor visibility day in April with significant enough regional haze throughout the Superstition Mountains monitoring vista that the Superstition Mountains ridgeline is barely visible.
  • Very Poor

    Camera View Very poor visibility day in April with significant regional haze throughout the Superstition Mountains monitoring vista. Note the Superstition Mountains ridgeline is no longer visible.

Seasonal Images

The following images are representative of pristine, scenic, or meteorological observances of interest.

  • Pristine

    Camera View

    December 16, 2003, 10:00 a.m.

    Example of excellent visibility representative of the Superstition Mountains monitoring vista.
  • Pristine

    Camera View

    December 16, 2003, 11:15 a.m.

    Example of excellent visibility representative of the Superstition Mountains monitoring vista.
  • Pristine

    Camera View

    December 16, 2003, 12:00 p.m.

    Example of excellent visibility representative of the Superstition Mountains monitoring vista.
  • Pristine

    Camera View

    December 16, 2003, 4:00 p.m.

    Example of excellent visibility representative of the Superstition Mountains monitoring vista.
  • Scenic

    Camera View

    October 1, 2003, 6:30 a.m.

    Example of a typical morning sunrise for the Superstition Mountains monitoring vista.
  • Scenic

    Camera View

    October 28, 2003, 6:15 a.m.

    Example of an early morning skyline for the Superstition Mountains monitoring vista.
  • Scenic

    Camera View

    January 3, 2004, 7:15 a.m.

    Example of a typical morning sunrise for the Superstition Mountains monitoring vista.
  • Scenic

    Camera View

    January 15, 2004, 3:45 p.m.

    Example of a scenic day with good visibility for the Superstition Mountains monitoring vista.
  • Scenic

    Camera View

    February 4, 2004, 5:45 p.m.

    Example of a scenic day with good visibility for the Superstition Mountains monitoring vista.
  • Scenic

    Camera View

    March 7, 2004, 7:45 p.m.

    Scenic moon rise over the Superstition Mountains.

Unique Superstition Mountains "/images/gallery Images

The following images are representative of observed layered haze, regional haze, or pollution episodes of significant importance.

  • Layered Haze

    Camera View

    December 15, 2003, 8:00 a.m.

    Representative ground-based layered haze impacting the Phoenix metro region, as seen from the Superstition Mountains monitoring vista, viewing 90° east.
  • Layered Haze

    Camera View

    January 29, 2004, 9:00 a.m..

    Representative ground-based layered haze impacting the Phoenix metro region, as seen from the Superstition Mountains monitoring vista, viewing 90° east.

Layered Haze

October 11, 2003

  • Camera View 7:15 a.m.
  • Camera View 7:45 a.m.
  • Camera View 9:15 a.m.

A layered haze event impacted visibility on October 11, 2003. The above morning Images depict multiple layered hazes as seen from the Superstition Mountains monitoring vista, viewing 90° east.

Layered Haze

December 2, 2003 through December 4, 2003

  • Camera View December 2, 2003,
    10:00 a.m.
  • Camera View December 3, 2003,
    10:00 a.m.
  • Camera View December 4, 2003,
    10:00 a.m.

Representative layered and regional haze event that impacted morning visibility seen from both the Estrella Mountains and Superstition Mountains (above) Web cameras.

Layered Haze

March 7, 2004

  • Camera View March 7, 2004,
    7:30 a.m.
  • Camera View March 7, 2004,
    8:30 a.m.
  • Camera View March 7, 2004,
    9:30 a.m.
  • Camera View March 7, 2004,
    10:30 a.m.

A layered and regional haze event occurred during the morning of March 7, 2004 that could be observed from several Phoenix visibility Web cameras. Hourly interval images depicting visibility as seen from the Superstition Mountains monitoring vista are shown above.

Regional Haze

January 29, 2004 through January 30, 2004

  • Camera View January 29, 2004,
    8:00 a.m.
  • Camera View January 29, 2004,
    10:00 a.m.
  • Camera View January 29, 2004,
    12:00 p.m.
  • Camera View January 29, 2004,
    2:00 p.m.
  • Camera View January 30, 2004,
    8:00 a.m.
  • Camera View January 30, 2004,
    10:00 a.m.
  • Camera View January 30, 2004,
    12:00 p.m.
  • Camera View January 30, 2004,
    2:00 p.m.
  • Camera View January 30, 2004,
    4:00 p.m.

A representative regional haze event occurred January 29 through 30, 2004 that could be seen from several Phoenix visibility Web cameras. Images depicting visibility as seen from the Superstition Mountains monitoring vista, viewing 90° east are shown above

Regional Haze

April 20, 2004 through April 22, 2004

  • Camera View April 20, 2004,
    10:00 a.m.
  • Camera View April 20, 2004,
    2:00 p.m.
  • Camera View April 21, 2004,
    10:00 a.m.
  • Camera View April 21, 2004,
    2:00 p.m.
  • Camera View April 22, 2004,
    8:00 a.m.
  • Camera View April 22, 2004,
    10:00 a.m.
  • Camera View April 22, 2004,
    2:00 p.m.

A representative regional haze event impacted visibility April 20 through April 22, 2004. The above images depict visibility as seen from the Superstition Mountains monitoring vista, viewing 90° east.

Pollution Episode

Blue River Complex Fire: July 13, 2003 through August 10, 2003

  • Camera View July 29, 2003,
    7:30 a.m.
  • Camera View July 30, 2003,
    7:30 a.m.
  • Camera View July 31, 2003,
    7:30 a.m.

The 18,575-acre Blue River Complex fire included two lightning-caused fires and a blaze contained in June. The fire was located over 200 miles east of Phoenix and approximately 18 miles south of Alpine, Arizona. July 29 through 31, 2003 smoke and reduced visibility that was observed from the Superstition Mountains Web camera during the containment phase of the fire is depicted above.

Pollution Episode

Southern California Wildfire Impacts: October 26 through November 9, 2003

In October of 2003, Southern California experienced the most devastating wildland fire disaster in state history. Over 750,000 acres burned. Smoke from the wildfires caused unhealthy levels of particulate pollution in a large expanse of Southern California and the Southwestern United States. Visibility in the Phoenix region was noticeably impacted from October 26 through November 9, 2003.

Below are daily 9:30 a.m. images depicting visibility conditions observed from the Superstition Mountains Web camera from October 26 through November 2, 2003.

  • Camera View October 26, 2003,
    9:30 a.m.
  • Camera View October 27, 2003,
    9:30 a.m.
  • Camera View October 28, 2003,
    9:30 a.m.
  • Camera View >October 29, 2003,
    9:30 a.m.
  • Camera View October 30, 2003,
    9:30 a.m.
  • Camera View October 31, 2003,
    9:30 a.m.
  • Camera View November 1, 2003,
    9:30 a.m.
  • Camera View November 2, 2003,
    9:30 a.m.

Below are daily 5:15 p.m. images depicting visibility conditions observed from the Superstition Mountains Web camera from October 30 through November 10, 2003.

  • Camera View October 30, 2003,
    5:15 p.m.
  • Camera View October 31, 2003,
    5:15 p.m.
  • Camera View November 1, 2003,
    5:15 p.m.
  • Camera View November 2, 2003,
    5:15 p.m.
  • Camera View November 3, 2003,
    5:15 p.m.
  • Camera View November 4, 2003,
    5:15 p.m.
  • Camera View November 5, 2003,
    5:15 p.m.
  • Camera View November 6, 2003,
    5:15 p.m.
  • Camera View November 7, 2003,
    5:15 p.m.
  • Camera View November 8, 2003,
    5:15 p.m.
  • Camera View November 9, 2003,
    5:15 p.m.
  • Camera View November 10, 2003,
    5:15 p.m.