(WSB photo, noon: Olympics hidden by smoke)
Lots of questions this morning about a smoky smell in the air. Authorities confirm a plume of smoke from the 11-day-old Bolt Creek fire, and if you check out air-quality maps – like this one – things are not looking good right now. This will be a problem until the wind shifts directions.
Nice map. I am intrigued that you can buy air monitors and be part of this air quality mapping. The indoor air quality sensors seem intriguing also. I guess one could measure how well their indoor HEPPA filters are actually working. But I don’t need a sensor to tell me when to drag out the filters. The chest pain, poor visibility, and smokey smell tell the story well enough. At what concentrations do schools alter their activities? I hope they have good filters running full steam, the poor kiddos with recent lung infections may have more trouble with the smoke than anyone expects.
If I am reading the map of individual stations correctly, we are likely to have a terrible afternoon here in West Seattle. The “unhealthy for everyone” zone has slowly burgeoned this morning all across downtown, the U-district, CD, Queen Anne. Look farther out and it’s obvious by the increasing smoke intensity that it’s coming from the Bolt Creek fire, and more is coming; a lot more. Let’s all hope for a shift in the prevailing winds as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, weather predictions are showing wind speed dying down to almost no movement during middle of the night tonight and not really picking up until mid-morning tomorrow ~ bad news!!
it amazes me that the state has not ramped up fire fighting efforts. Now maybe they have however it brings to discussion that we need more or better ways of fighting fires. More aircraft is definently needed. we need an entire air force of large and small tanker planes and helicopters. This is just not acceptable and I am concerned about all the people with health conditions. I stepped out for just a few minutes and wow what a blast of bad air. Seems like we just grin and bear it until the winds shift or the rains come. We really need a proactive approach to wildfires other than “here comes the smoke again”.
They will buy their fire fighting Air Force and hire the staff shortly after they give all the teachers, cops, and other public employees large raises. Then they can update our aging infrastructure of roads wires and plumbing while finding a dramatic shift in energy creation that doesn’t worsen forest fires and restore critical salmon runs. This will happen just after we get Bezos and Bill to pay their fair share and get Boeing and Providence to stop outsourcing white collar jobs to maintain our tax base. I could have said also they will have a fire fighting Air Force composed of flying pigs.
The problem is you can pull up a different map for air quality and get vastly different results. The best way is to stick your head out the window and make an assessment. But yes the air quality sucks.
When I got up this morning I thought my husband was cooking us bacon.
We live in the Shorewood area just above Seola Beach and the air is not too bad but if you drive out of the area just a few blocks…holy smokes (no pun intended) it’s bad and if you look towards Vashon Is. you can see that orange haze. I wonder how it is for the neighborhood cats running around, their lungs are so much smaller than us humans?
Sorry, comment time is over.
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