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SounderBruce OP t1_it1fasn wrote

There's a few wildfires in the Cascades east of Seattle that are producing huge smoke plumes that are covering the lowlands to the west. It's quite unprecedented to have them burning on the western slopes this late in the year, but that's what we have to live with now.

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TehFlygon t1_it1fqrw wrote

It is brutal here in Bellingham right now... Praying for this rain to clear it out on Friday

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MsWumpkins t1_it1g9fm wrote

The entire state is trapped in a smoke plume.

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Raziehh t1_it1ggvh wrote

Pretty sure this article headline could be changed to the state of Washington and it’d still be accurate.

Vancouver and it’s currently 180 on the AQI. This rain can’t come soon enough.

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in-game_sext t1_it1gu45 wrote

"Air quality around Seattle*...right now...*ranked worst in the world"

Not a fucking chance this headline is true 99.9% of the rest of the time.

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hkohne t1_it1gyw9 wrote

Us in Portland are right behind you @ #2

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AllNightWriting t1_it1hxel wrote

Replying to MsWumpkins (#150,969)

All the way through the entire Portland Metro, too. It’s huge. In my area it got to 176 AQI and in Portland proper, some places were well over 200. I hope the upcoming rain helps clear up our PNW skies and give the firefighters (and our lungs) some relief.

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Kapowpow t1_it1ixms wrote

Everyone should be using Purple Maps (Google it or whatnot) instead of the AQI reading through your phone’s weather app; Purple Maps is far more accurate. By a mile.

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HelenAngel t1_it1jss9 wrote

Replying to in-game_sext (#150,989)

It’s not- usually the air quality is excellent here. We just got hit with wildfires all around us, unseasonably warm & dry weather. We all have our fingers crossed that Friday will start our 6 months of rain

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Anoobis_117 t1_it1m3ax wrote

Chinese aluminum workers: ☠️

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Toolazytocreate t1_it21vb4 wrote

What’s crazy is it was this bad in Eastern WA last year. Definitely gonna crack open a Rainer and drink in the rain hopefully Friday!!

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robbycakes t1_it27dpu wrote

Southern California: YESSSSSSS!

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onlycatshere t1_it28j5y wrote

Replying to whatproblems (#151,178)

To be fair, it isn't this bad everyday in smoke season. The weather seems to have a big affect on where it goes and how well it dissipates.

Everyone I talked with about it agreed that yesterday was the worst day of the year (so far). A couple years ago I feel like we had at least a couple weeks as severe as yesterday. Hopefully it's not like that again.

I'm seeing a few people outside wearing respirators, more than during the height of the pandemic. Working for an hour outside without a N95 yesterday was a poor choice and I'm still dead exhausted from it. Going from inside to out, it's instant coughing and stinging eyes for me, and while others feel that too, it seems like my body has less tolerance lol. Definitely going to wear my resp today

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ThornNyrSide t1_it2fatb wrote

Yep! My air quality app said 188 yesterday in the unhealthy category because 4 friends went shooting near a hiking trail in Camas and it burned 250 acres of forest. We're finally getting rain tomorrow though. The app is telling me the 200s now so very unhealthy air still.

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Maxpowr9 t1_it2gam8 wrote

This is all Bouy's fault.

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Meppy1234 t1_it2kh4w wrote

422 in darrington yesterday which is about an hour from Seattle.

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feral_brick t1_it2locn wrote

Replying to in-game_sext (#150,989)

That's the whole point. Late wildfire season, with lots of fires smoldering in inaccessible areas, turned a normally high air quality place into the worst.

The wildfire season wasn't even bad, in terms of acres burned, but anecdotally I think the smoke was still pretty bad. Not the worst ever for sure, but not the best either (I think)

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stupidpunname54 t1_it2lsi4 wrote

Replying to DrBabs (#152,496)

Yup... when I was a kid we had clean air, less drought and plenty of water. I've never seen such a warm October in my life.

As today progresses, we should see wind coming from the west build up and clear us out. Hopefully...

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optimaloutcome t1_it2m5ja wrote

Sorry, Seattle. It's my fault. Usually Northern California gets this treatment, so this year I sprung for a fancy HEPA indoor air filter (quite the upgrade from last year when I taped an HVAC filter to a box fan) so we had the best Sept/Oct air quality in a long time. Unfortunately, I also replaced the gutters on my house in January and it basically stopped raining too. Hopefully we'll get rain this year and no fires next year.

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manbearcolt t1_it2mcdh wrote

Replying to stupidpunname54 (#153,434)

I live in South Dakota (near the border with Minnesota). They just got ~5" of snow in Minnesota. It's supposed to be 85 on Sunday. October twenty fucking third in (essentially) southern Canada.

Boy oh boy I'm glad climate change is a hoax, because that would really suck if it were real...

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_sunday_funday_ t1_it2sugl wrote

It's been awful. Supposedly it's should rain tomorrow and we can get this cleared out some. I'm in Tacoma and its gotten so bad over the past few days.

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squeakycheetah t1_it2tan2 wrote

Replying to stupidpunname54 (#153,434)

I'm north of you in Southern B.C. The wind hit this morning and it didn't smell like campfire when I took the dog out. The smoke is pretty much gone now and it's cloudy and cool instead of sunny and 20° already. Hopefully you guys are next and get some clean air today.

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IAmTheNightSoil t1_it2tscj wrote

Replying to Alphamullet (#151,270)

Yeah dude. It's fucking LATE OCTOBER. We are supposed to be way past this shit by now. Although I supposed "supposed to" is a problematic statement because really, until about the last five years this stuff didn't happen at all. There was no "smoke season" in the PNW when I was growing up here

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StormeeusMaximus t1_it2wgka wrote

My new neighbor across the street doesn't GAF. He's been burning stuff in his back yard for the past week. Not like we have enough smoke in the air already, he's gotta add to it. I guess the big Burn Ban sign at the entrance to our neighborhood wasn't big enough.

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Delnac t1_it2wzg1 wrote

Replying to Baboofmagoo2 (#152,481)

That's awful. I experienced a bit of that back when I was traveling in a pretty polluted city and I woke up feeling like I was suffocating, nearly in apnea because I'd left the AC on which was pumping in the polluted air in.

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jschubart t1_it2ybvf wrote

AQI is in the high 200s where I am at in Seattle. That reminds me that I have to move my air purifier to the room I am in. If you are doing anything outside, you should be wearing an N95 mask.

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Musicfan637 t1_it2zc6f wrote

The last few years the air has been better in SoCal than way up north. It’s sad. Now where do I go?

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stupidpunname54 t1_it315js wrote

Replying to squeakycheetah (#153,928)

Wind will start picking up here around 10 or 11, i hope. Still sitting well over 200ppm in my area.

I haven't been able to run all week. I tried one day and it felt like I smoked all of my weed in one go. Enjoy the fresh air!

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Chuccles t1_it332df wrote

You see china took ourra good air, and gave us the bad air

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herbalhippie t1_it348cd wrote

Replying to SounderBruce (#150,936)

This is amazing to me. I'm in Eastern WA just east of the mountains and looking out my front window it looks like I'm in a heavy fog bank. I checked the air quality here, it's 196. Seattle is freaking 217.

I grew up in Seattle and was in the area until 1998 and never once saw wildfire smoke. Now it's an every year occurrence.

On 10/5 our air quality was 345-Hazardous. Here's what it looked like.

https://imgur.com/Q17PM20

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Shoeprincess t1_it35syx wrote

I can't go in my yard right now, 20 years we have lived here and its NEVER been this bad. I can't believe I am saying it, but plz send rain ...

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chadenright t1_it3atsr wrote

Replying to CivilTax00100100 (#154,464)

-Everything- affects your health long-term. Living in vancouver right now...but it's way better than Bakersfield, California where basically everyone who stays there develops lung and nasal problems. Bakersfield has this kind of fungus in the soil which isn't usually a problem....until dust storms kick it into the air, people breathe it in and develop something called valley fever. Which was killing enough people that the nearby prison had to shut down; inmates kept dropping dead.

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DigitalSterling t1_it3cvgx wrote

Replying to stupidpunname54 (#154,466)

I wanna say denver hit like 90 in December last year and had a wildfire pop off before it snowed like 6" the next day

Edit: I was mistaken, or misremembered where it had the 90 degree figure from. Denver did spend most of last December well above freezing though

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Kevin_Wolf t1_it3ixsk wrote

Replying to chadenright (#155,129)

>Which was killing enough people that the nearby prison had to shut down; inmates kept dropping dead.

Which "nearby prison" are you talking about? As far as I can see, all of Kern County's prisons that have been open for years are still open. Kern has 5 or 6 state prisons. If one prison had inmates dropping from valley fever badly enough that they had to close, then they all would.

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stupidpunname54 t1_it3yfc8 wrote

Replying to Cimatron85 (#155,012)

And when I was a kid. The average temperature never reached 56.5 F. That is the current average temperature based off of the remaining highs and lows predicted for October.

The highest average during my child hood was 54.1F

So I think my memory, in this case, has served me well.

data source

Edit to add. 2014 saw 57f average. The highest in my lifetime. So this year ranks #2.

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strdg99 t1_it40yxd wrote

I live about 35 miles east of Seattle. Air is filled with smoke and ash and its coating everything. You can see it floating in front of your face. Quarter-mile visibility. House is buttoned up tight with air purifiers running and it's still maxing out my air quality monitor.

Reminds of the smoke we had just a couple of years ago.

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BlindLantern t1_it429kd wrote

Northwestern Pennsylvanian here, highs in the thirties and forties and snow during the week and then almost 70 this weekend.

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Unconfidence t1_it48m7t wrote

Replying to in-game_sext (#150,989)

Seriously I read this headline, and as a native of Baton Rouge, which is affectionately called "Cancer Alley", I was kinda taken aback. Glad to hear they're just discussing forest fire smoke and not like...chemical pollution from oil refineries.

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J4MES101 t1_it4i0qt wrote

Maybe that’s what’s causing the insomnia?

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Individual-Text-1805 t1_it4md9u wrote

Thank goodness it won't be like 2020 and the rain storm will start soon hopefully dosing the fires entirely.

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SirThatsCuba t1_it4obv8 wrote

My favorite thing about covid was making filtered masks available to like, everyone. I don't think I'd last another fire season without

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TimDave t1_it4vz65 wrote

Replying to SounderBruce (#150,936)

Yep, and this time, it was caused by a dry thunder storm we got... what... 2 and a half months ago?? It's been going on a while at Goat Rocks at least. It's been like hell to breathe these last few months. My 4th inhaler in 2 months is on its way to me now, and this is WITH Advair.

I'm honestly worried about how the hell I'm supposed to live around here in the future with asthma as bad as it is.

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Zealousideal-Comb970 t1_it522j6 wrote

I’m a fair bit northwest of Seattle and the fires so we don’t have it quite as bad, but it’s still pretty bad. Pretty much every outdoor activity has been cancelled for weeks and I’ve had an uptick in respiratory illnesses since bolt creek started, might not be the cause but it’s definitely not helping

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nicetriangle t1_it60fjf wrote

Shit was absolutely brutal here today. I've never seen it this bad before. Visibility was insanely low and it just looked apocalyptic out there.

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Pandatoke t1_it6e3sh wrote

We may get rain today! It’s been so long :(

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J-MAMA t1_it7dv35 wrote

So glad I moved off of the west coast, dealing with that BS year after year was too much.

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Shot_Presence_8382 t1_it8h4gt wrote

Replying to herbalhippie (#154,639)

Down here in Vancouver, WA and air quality is horrible. It was 171 last time I checked and my daughter's school has done indoor recess and VPS has cancelled school sports and athletics or kept them indoors this week. There's like 4 fires burning nearby towards Washougal and Camas. The Nakia Creek fire was apparently started by some idiots in the woods and the police are looking for them - there's a far off picture of their vehicle.

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tictacbergerac t1_it9rm8m wrote

Wildfire is a normal and important part of the PNW ecosystem. It's unpleasant, but critical for our part of the country.

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