Professional ambient screening for coal self-heating and dry coal dust awareness · live National Weather Service observations
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Executive operating overview
This dashboard is designed to help leaders, site personnel, and risk stakeholders quickly interpret ambient conditions that may support coal self-heating or increase dry coal dust concern. It combines relative humidity, short-term temperature movement, and wind/gust screening from nearby National Weather Service stations. It is best used as an executive awareness and field communication tool — not as a stand-alone life-safety, engineering, or process-control system.
Independent awareness tool
Coal self-heat watch
50–59% RH
Elevated awareness range. Conditions may begin moving toward a more favorable self-heating window.
Prime self-heat window
60–70% RH
Most important screening band for coal spontaneous-combustion awareness based on the research reviewed.
Moving too rich
71–79% RH
Humidity is becoming less favorable for prime self-heating screening conditions.
Too rich / too humid
≥80% RH
Screening indicates conditions are generally too humid for the prime self-heating zone.
Dry dust watch
16–20% RH
Operational warning range for dry coal dust concern. Use with housekeeping, dust control, and ignition-source awareness.
Peak dry dust concern
≤15% RH
Operational peak awareness band for very dry dust conditions. Confirm with site-specific dust, housekeeping, and ignition data.
Step 1
Watch the humidity zone first
Use the humidity band to understand whether a site is in a self-heating awareness zone, a dry dust awareness zone, or a too-rich / too-humid zone.
Step 2
Confirm the trend and movement
Short-term temperature swing and wind/gust screens are intended to highlight changing ambient conditions that may deserve more attention.
Step 3
Verify with plant or mine controls
Always confirm with pile/silo temperatures, CO or gas monitoring, inspection findings, housekeeping, dust-control measures, and site personnel observations.
Method, interpretation, and intended use
What this tool is doing
Pulling nearby NWS weather observations for each monitored site.
Screening relative humidity against operational awareness bands for coal self-heating and dry dust concern.
Using a short-term temperature swing and wind/gust screen to call extra attention to changing conditions.
What this tool is not doing
It does not directly measure in-pile, bunker, silo, conveyor, or building conditions.
It does not replace temperature probes, CO monitoring, gas sampling, thermal imaging, dust testing, or engineering judgment.
It is not a predictive model or a guarantee that an event will or will not occur.
Evidence strength
The 60–70% RH self-heating band has the strongest direct support from the reviewed research, especially for sub-bituminous / PRB-type behavior.
The 50–59% watch band and >70% moving-too-rich / too-rich interpretation are evidence-informed operational guidance.
The ≤20% and ≤15% dry dust bands are operational awareness thresholds supported qualitatively by dry-dust hazard literature, not a universal coal-only RH law.
Important disclaimer: This dashboard is a screening aid to help inform and create awareness only. Ambient weather from nearby stations may not match actual on-site conditions inside stockpiles, silos, bunkers, process buildings, or enclosed dust areas. Users should verify conditions with site-specific monitoring, inspections, and applicable procedures before making operational decisions.
Reference library and confirmation links
Nugroho, Rustam, Iman, & Saleh (2008)
Effect of Humidity on Self-heating of a Sub-bituminous Coal under Adiabatic Conditions. Key support for the ~70% RH peak self-heating finding.
Examination of the role of moisture content on the spontaneous combustion of coal (SCC). Supports the role of moisture and reduced SCC tendency above ~20% moisture content.
These links are provided so users can review the underlying references themselves. If your organization has additional site-specific testing, fuel characterization, or engineering studies, those should be considered more directly applicable to your facility than generalized ambient screening alone.
Alarm thresholds
Alert log · this session
Monitored sites (US locations — NWS coverage)
Disclaimer: This dashboard is a tool to help inform and create awareness only. It is intended for screening and communication, not as a stand-alone basis for operations, emergency response, or engineering decisions.
Interpretation notes: Self-heat RH watch 50–59% · prime self-heat RH 60–70% · moving too-rich RH 71–79% · too-rich RH ≥80% · dry dust watch 16–20% · peak dry dust concern ≤15%. The coal self-heating bands are based on the reviewed literature and operational interpretation; the low-RH dust bands are conservative operational awareness thresholds and should be confirmed with site-specific dust, housekeeping, and ignition-source information.
Data source: U.S. National Weather Service (api.weather.gov), nearest-station observations. Confidence reflects station distance, observation age, and missing fields. Treat LOW-confidence sites with caution and consider on-site sensors and direct inspection. Audible alarm and session alert log reset on page reload.