Actually the whole west coast is smoky, and it has been smoky for 6 weeks in California. Over 4.6 million acres have burned in the US, mostly on the west coast, and the season is far from over. The screen shot below is from the Purple AiR Real-time Air Quality Monitoring map. It shows realtime air quality. The purple circles on the map below indicate air quality on September 14 and range from very unhealthy to hazardous in WA, OR, and CA. Note values in some parts of CA are over 700. No one should be outside in this air. Firefighters are doing us a great service by jeopardizing their lives to save people and property. You can click on the Purple Air link above to get current AQ values and on the map below to see a larger version of the map on 9/14/2020..
How and when it became “Smoky in Seattle”
Starting in late August Seattle was mildly impacted by smoke, (mostly from CA) and as a result, we were blessed with beautiful sunsets. Sept 6 started out as a beautiful day. We put our bikes on the car and planned to drive down to the Foothills Trail which is near Bonny Lake and Sumner (about 45 min. south of our home near Mt. Rainier). We were ready to go, but an unusually strong and steady wind for this time of year began blowing, so we decided to postpone our trip for a few days. That evening, the smell of smoke was very strong in our house — so strong that Chuck thought there was a fire in the immediate area and started searching for it but couldn’t locate the source. The next morning, we heard that fires in Bonny Lake and Sumner (the very area we had intended to bike in) had started the previous day, and the southerly winds were now blowing them our way.
The photos below were all taken from the same spot (I haven’t been out of the house in over a week). The first photo was taken from my deck on a clear day. Those that follow were taken during the last two weeks and show how the smoke increased during that time. First we were impacted by just the California fires and then in addition were impacted by smoke from Oregon. On September 6 the problem was complicated by the Washington fires. As of today, the fires in WA state are mostly contained, but continue to rage in CA and OR — and the weather patterns continue to blow their smoke our way.
During the last week, Seattle’s air quality has ranged from the third worst to the worst city in the world. See the iqair site for city rankings.
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