Smoke on the water...

 The entire state has smelled like a campfire this past week. 

Earlier in the week, we had easterly winds sending smoke from fire on the east (or "dry") side of the state over the Cascades and sending air quality, even along the shores of Puget Sound and the Salish Sea, into the "unhealthy for sensitive groups" or even "unhealthy" ranges.

Thursday night the wind shifted, now coming from the south, and now we are blanketed with smoke from wildfires in Oregon and California.

Here's a link to Washington's Air Quality Monitoring Network map. (LINK.) And a screen grab of current readings; note that we are in the Very Unhealthy to Hazardous range pretty much all over, until you get to elevation.

Edited to add: That spot of green turns out to be a monitoring station that doesn't "do" smoke.< br/>The stuff it <i>does</i> monitor is just fine...

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Here are some pics from my corner of the 98-double-ought-3.

©2020 D.W. Drang & the Cluemeter

View out front Friday (9/11) afternoon, looking south. Traffic permitting, we have an unobstructed view to the major east-west thoroughfare about a quarter mile away.

Looking kind of misty, but it's not humidity, it's smoke.

©2020 D.W. Drang & the Cluemeter

Same view this morning.

©2020 D.W. Drang & the Cluemeter

The elementary school around the corner from us, also this morning. This gives an idea of just how yellow the sky is.

Reminds me of the "Yellow Wind" we used to get in Korea, when the wind was out of the Gobi. (Mind you, from the stories, after spending several years living in Shanghai, my sister would probably shrug this off...)

I see from the Wikipedia article I linked there that the Yellow Wind has been exacerbated the last several decades due to desertification and deforestation arising from Soviet industrial policies. 

Thanks, Commies!

Speaking of which, wildfires in western states have been exacerbated by green policies preventing prescribed, controlled burns and the clearing of underbrush which fuels the fires. Not to mention California's refusal to maintain dams and reservoirs. Because who needs water in these cities you built in the desert?

Here's another useful web site for tracking this: WA Smoke. It's a collaboration between state, tribal, local, and federal agencies. Hosted on Blogspot, I was surprised to be able to access it at work, which blocks nearly all social media, and especially blogs.  

Here's their entry for this morning:

Gasp! How much longer???

Quick answers: at least another day and a half in Western WA. 2-3 days in eastern WA.

Gradual clearing will commence on the WA coast on Sunday from west to east, and it will be Monday before that pushes across the state. For western WA, this means we're close to the peak of the episode, but much of eastern WA will deteriorate further today before it starts to get better. The size of the Oregon smoke plumes parked offshore is so "super-massive", and the fires themselves are very smoky, so smoke will continue to pour into the state for a while to come. And there are also several fires within WA to contend with.

I can't help thinking of the Tom Lehrer song "Pollution": "Don't drink the water/And don't breathe the air!"