Smoke

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I've accepted that we have to filter/treat our ground water for drinking.
I never thought much about what we'd do if our air quality was bad - another good reason to air-seal the house as best we can I guess.
It seems our new paradigm requires wearing masks to counter multiple threats and I'm thinking we'd better get used to it.
I'm watching the nightly news from last night right now, and they just said breathing the smokey air in the most affected areas is like smoking 20 packs of cigarettes. I can't even.
 
I feel for you, this is the first year in the last 4 where we haven't been overrun with forest fire smoke. 2018 was by far the worst, we had a 1 month stretch where we couldn't see blue sky. Unfortunately there's not much you can do, do as little as possible outside, use HEPA filters in the house, bump up the humidity in the house and drink lots of water. Eventually it will pass.
Yes, I remember there were some really bad fires up there.
So far we are just getting the smoke. It's much better than down in OR where the situation is dire. Canby and Robson Acres are reporting a dangerous 698ppm in heavy smoke. This is just about 30 miles sound of Portland. The scary thing is that this is just the beginning of the fire season and everything out here is tinder dry.

Here's a 9am view out my office window. That's murky fug outside, not fog. Have to have lights on due to the very subdued outdoor light.

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Temps today are 15-20º below predicted. The smoke is blocking the sun. You can not see it. Not good for the garden or solar panels. Hopefully, this will start blowing over starting tomorrow afternoon.
 
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This is crazy. I am very happy to have a HEPA filter I bought when I lived in Texas for the dust there. I never thought I would need it here for smoke.
 
This image shows the changes in the past few days. It's much worse in Portland and south.

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It is ugly here tonight. I feel bad for my 4 legged weed eaters, but I am not bringing goats into the house. Our local fires were to the east of us, and are pretty well cleaned up. The smoke is coming from the west.
 
Do you really think that this is just the beginning of wildfire season?
 
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Do you really think that this is just the beginning of wildfire season?
That's a moving target as the number of acres destroyed and timing have expanded dramatically in the past 20yrs. It also depends on the state. Regions vary in prevailing winds and rainfall. In WA they typically start in July and go thru Sept. In central OR it started about June 1st this year which is 10 days earlier than average. In CA it depends if it is northern or southern CA. In the south it continues up thru Nov. This year's fire season once again is history-making, so the 'normal' fire season may change again looking back on it. With climate change it's anyone's guess.
 
That's a moving target as the number of acres destroyed and timing have expanded dramatically in the past 20yrs. It also depends on the state. Regions vary in prevailing winds and rainfall. In WA they typically start in July and go thru Sept. In central OR it started about June 1st this year which is 10 days earlier than average. In CA it depends if it is northern or southern CA. In the south it continues up thru Nov. This year's fire season once again is history-making, so the 'normal' fire season may change again looking back on it. With climate change it's anyone's guess.

Here I was thinking our fire season is about over and then you said it’s just starting. This post makes way more sense, we’re at mid September now so it’s almost over historically. Thank goodness.

Lots of random pop up fires near our evacuation area have made people suspicious of arson activity.

Today’s season opener football game will likely mean the typical firework celebrations with every touchdown. Not us, we prefer shotgun blasts, but fireworks have started fires in the past.
 
Yeah, for WA state it's going to depend on whether Sept and Oct are wet or dry months. Let's hope it remains typical and the rains start up soon. There is some forecast for this week. The firefighters could really use a break.

Are fireworks illegal in Pierce County after July 5th?
 
The firefighters could really use a break.

Are fireworks illegal in Pierce County after July 5th?

Fireworks are certainly illegal right now. But so is exceeding the speed limit. So is rioting and looting!

It’s simply a question of whether folks choose to respect that law.

We also live near tribal lands that have no laws and encourage fireworks year round.
 
Fireworks are certainly illegal right now. But so is exceeding the speed limit. So is rioting and looting!

It’s simply a question of whether folks choose to respect that law.

We also live near tribal lands that have no laws and encourage fireworks year round.
I find it hard to believe any self respecting tribal person would ever encourage fireworks year round. Sounds like propaganda to me.
 
I find it hard to believe any self respecting tribal person would ever encourage fireworks year round. Sounds like propaganda to me.
Like their Casinos they fulfill a need and what their customers choose to do is not on them. The big days for fireworks are the 4th and New Years anyway.
 
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I find it hard to believe any self respecting tribal person would ever encourage fireworks year round. Sounds like propaganda to me.

Don’t you have Indians out in Maine? We have several tribes that sell year round.
 
I find it hard to believe any self respecting tribal person would ever encourage fireworks year round. Sounds like propaganda to me.
Yup, our local tribes make all their money selling healthy cigarettes.
Hard to be self respecting when staring at a basket of easy money.
 
Don’t you have Indians out in Maine? We have several tribes that sell year round.
I guess they are just more conservative out here. The only store on tribal land I've seen is an archery shop.
 
My mom and sister live in Northern California and ano sister lives in Oregon, they all left the upper Midwest To escape our harsh long winter and I stayed. my one sister said that the AQI was over 200 this morning and I said ours was 4 up here which they can’t achieve even in The best of condition. I don’t know, we do have long winters a d life here is a lot different than it is in California but I’ll take the snow and cold over fast times and fires.
 
Winds seem calm to low along the west coast.
Concentrations:
Carbon Monoxide
Sulpher Dioxide
Particulates

 

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We had a bright sunny day across Indiana yesterday that was almost cloudy because of the smoke from out west. That’s unreal, don’t think I’ve ever seen that in my lifetime.
 
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We had a bright sunny day across Indiana yesterday that was almost cloudy because of the smoke from out west. That’s unreal, don’t think I’ve ever seen that in my lifetime.
Same here, we have a white haze across the whole sky. Oddly we could still see the stars fairly well last night.
 
Incredible HD helicopter footage of the damage near Talent, OR.


This is where my friend's son lost their home and everything but the clothes they wore and the car they drove out in. Multiply this thousand of times on the west coast this year.