West Seattle pilot/photographer Long Bach Nguyen sent that photo, saying he thought neighbors here would be interested to see just how far out, and high up, the wildfire smoke has spread. If you’ve been wondering about relief – forecasters say it’s on the way, even before the chance of showers predicted for this Sunday. The updated Air Quality Alert for the region says, “Conditions are expected to begin improving Thursday night, but even more so on Friday as strengthening southerly flow aloft pushes the smoke out of the area.” So all those eerie views should soon be a memory – including sunset/sunrise views that even revealed sunspots, as Kersti Muul‘s photo shows:

As for the source of the smoke – British Columbia expects some rain, but not enough to extinguish the wildfires.