Free Real Time Radiation Map of U.S.

With the latest worry of possibility of a full scale catastrophic meltdown in Japan and with the jet stream's path to the U.S. fears are mounting on how much radiation will hit the U.S. Here's a free radiation map of monitoring stations located in several states that measure environmental radiation levels updated in real time every minute. The "hot spot" city based on a typical jet stream's path where this "plume" of radiation may probably hit first would be city of San Francisco.  This radiation map does have San Francisco as one of several monitoring stations across the U.S. seen below as yellow circles.

Real time map of current background environmental radiation count (CPM)

There are 3 cities that have radiation monitoring on the west coast - San Francisco, Seattle, and Vancouver, B.C.   Seattle has its own "real time" radiation map.  As you can see from the radiation map, San Francisco's current radiation level is 30 CPM (Counts per Minute). The "Alert Level" would be at 130 CPM.

Any Monitoring Stations with CPM value above 130, further indicated by an Alert symbol over those stations, it probably means that some radioactive source above and beyond background radiation is responsible.

And if the number does jump over 130 CPM over the next 30 days we'll probably know why. This "plume" is said to hit the United States this Friday.

Japanese Nuke Plant Radioactive Meltdown and How It Could Affect the U.S.

ADDENDUM: Free real time radiation map of the United States.

Just because the Fukushima Daiichi power plant's Unit 1 in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture, Japan is located some 4500 miles to the west from Portland, Oregon doesn't mean that the west coast won't be in the path of Japan's radioactive fallout. Most vulnerable states appears to be Washington, Oregon and California that may be first in line to see the effects of a radioactive fallout should Japan experience a catastrophic meltdown. For the rainy west coast radioactive materials could come down mostly in the form of rain and snow. With this scenario there is a concern on how it could affect water, agriculture and even livestock such as cattle for their milk.

Using an online jet stream animation page you can see where the upper 300 mb jet stream fluctuated over the last 2 to 20 days. Just click on "20 days" worth of animation and set it at a 6 hour interval. And then click on "Build Animation" button to see the results the flow of the upper level jet stream.

The only other lesson we can learn from this is the Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion and fallout and its global radiation pattern and what the United States could expect should a catastrophic meltdown occur over at Japan. Although Ryohei Shiomi, an official with Japan's nuclear safety commission, said that even with a meltdown, it wouldn't affect people outside a six-mile (10-kilometer) radius. Although that could change should the situation deteriorates and becomes catastrophic. Perhaps Japan is attempting to down play this seriousness?

From one commenter:

The explosion is a very very bad sign. They are claiming that they don't know if the the reactor core has been damaged. That unfortunat­ely isn't a true statement they know perfectly well it has been breached. They have announced elevated levels of Cesium in the air. They are talking about "radiation leakage". That is misleading­, Cesium 135 and 137 are isotopes that are byproducts of the fission reactor using Uranium 235 a a primary fuel. Cesium isotopes can only come from the reactor core which means it has been breached. In a best case they are deliberate­ly venting the reactor vessel to try and keep the damping control rods from collapsing­. In a worst case scenario the control rods have collapsed and they have a full scale runaway reactor that will start to produce heat again with no cooling system. If that is the case it can only end one way. A complete core
breach that will allow the core to fall down into the ground water. When that happens the molten sodium and fission mass will cause a massive explosion throwing cubic kilometers of steam containing Cesium, Uranium 235 and perhaps worst of all Plutonium 239 up into the atmosphere­, all the way up into the jet stream. Lets all hope that doesn't happen.

Let's hope not. And this could be another "Chernobyl disaster" in the making. And it could be even worse.