That’s the murky view of south Bainbridge Island from Emma Schmitz Memorial Overlook a short time ago. The wildfire smoke is back and expected to hang around a while. The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency has announced an air-quality alert, but it doesn’t officially kick in for King County until 5 pm Friday, despite all the smoke out there right now and the readings shown on this map. The alert is expected to stay in place all weekend. (Here’s the latest on the big wildfire that’s causing this.)
Can we get some freaking rain, please? These blue skies and smoke suck
I’ve been in the area since the 1970’s and I can’t remember the last time we got to mid october with no rain and continuous high temps like this. Very weird.
What was once weird is now the new normal. Get used to it. Some day we will remember these days with fondness, reflecting on how good we had it at the time.
Don’t worry. Cliff Mass says everything is fine, and this is DEFINITELY NOT CAUSED BY CLIMATE CHANGE.
The Air Quality Index is over 150 in the UNHEALTHY range yet I still see joggers going by. Horrible idea.
There are worse things than jogging in smoky conditions. Like sitting on one’s couch watching 6 hours of tv a day or playing video games all day. Given the rate of obesity in this country, I don’t begrudge anyone their form of exercise whenever it is they want to partake in it.
I was surprised that our kid’s soccer practice wasn’t cancelled Thursday afternoon (yesterday). They played in a smoky game on the weekend and lost their voice for the first half of this past week.
Climate Change has already wrecked this planet so much. Smoke season is getting longer each year. Makes me want to move honestly. Midwest doesn’t get any of this.
Have fun out there. No massive tornados and storms growing bigger by the year to deal with. The problem with global warming is that you can run, but you can’t hide.
Oh I don’t know Derek, this area used to be just massive ice fields until you know, the climate changed. Now we can live here and have trees and water that is not ice.
I understand the reasons for not putting out forest fires but at what point does the health of the citizens become important? Bolt Creek has burned more than a month. Put out the fire from the air already.I’ve lived here 30 years and never remember smoke except for the last 5 years.
Read the link to fire info (click the fire’s name). They ARE working on it.
Or
https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/8417/
Odd son. I agree and wrote your same views however I was responded with general apathy. Hopefully people will get that we should be putting these fires out. And, manage our forests much better.
This isn’t a case of a prescribed burn they can’t get it under control
Air quality is not part of decision-making about fire management. Personnel capabilities and safety, and threats to structures/infrastructure, are the primary drivers of how fires are handled, along with wilderness management strategies.
Water dump planes and copters carry a lot less than you think and it takes a lot more water than most people know to put out big fires. Might take fifteen tons of water just to put out a house fire completely.
And there’s a LOT of fires across the land.
The smoke is awful and ruins the most beautiful season of the year. What I worry about more is the loss of trees, habitat, and wildlife. Forests are already dying worldwide without the further loss of tree cover due to fire. I wonder if lumber harvests are reduced due to this loss? Doubt it. We can’t let a little thing like global planetary collapse get in the way of a little profit.
A lot of people wondering/moaning “why doesn’t someone do something about this?”.The airdrop style of firefighting is only effective if there are firefighters on the ground in conjunction. The terrain there is often steep and rocky and unsafe for firefighters. These guys aren’t paid enough to wade into a wildfire in that terrain.
Too many people are making excuses and accepting the unhealthy environment as normal. Sorry but my standards are much higher. If we need more resources then get them, get more people to fight the fires and more planes to drop water or retardant. We need prescribed burns to thin and create fire barriers. If we need air lifts for firefighters then get the airlifts. Letting the fires just burn is ludicrous.
Sorry, comment time is over.
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