Are smoky summer skies the new normal in Seattle? (Bellingham: move, retire)

[lifexponential]

Originally Posted by rupp-certified

Thank you for balancing out the climate change alarmists with some data!

Excuse me? I’m definitely not that. But just taking note of things that transpired since Fukushima.

[lifexponential]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

This morning though the visibility is better some of the haze seems to be fog, and you can feel moisture in the air. I think much of the problems with fires in California are still the result of their drought lasting from 2012-2017, one of their longest recorded. Despite water levels finally becoming normal, a drought that long has a devastating effect on the forests that takes years of normal rain/snow to recover. For Canada, it's been mostly dry lightning causing their fires and when they start in wilderness areas they are harder to discover and to fight. Higher temperatures create more lightning, and that combines with drier vegetation so the fires are worse. We have been here 25 years, and last year was the first that I can remember having haze and smell from wildfire smoke here.

I agree

[Botev1912]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

We have been here 25 years, and last year was the first that I can remember having haze and smell from wildfire smoke here.

2015 had a lot of smoke too.

[Ruth4Truth]

Is the worst of it over, now? Reports show Seattle air quality has improved significantly.

I don't know what to say to people who want to move to the Puget Sound area, after this. This is freaky stuff! It's going to be the "new normal" until there's not much left to burn. .

[rupp-certified]

Originally Posted by Botev1912

2015 had a lot of smoke too.

2015 was much worse than last year, I'm not sure how he could have forgotten that...

[Canamlian]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Is the worst of it over, now? Reports show Seattle air quality has improved significantly.

I don't know what to say to people who want to move to the Puget Sound area, after this. This is freaky stuff! It's going to be the "new normal" until there's not much left to burn. .

It’s much better now but the smoke could come back even worse next week apparently

[Ruth4Truth]

Sat goodbye to the planet as we know it.

[Suelli5]

I agree in general with the poster’s argument below, but Montana had terrible fires last summer. I drove home to WA across Montana from the Grand Tetons and the entire state was engulfed in fire smoke. I agree that fires near more populated areas get more media attention (more human lives and homes at risk), but the less populated states of the West are also struggling with out of control fires. 2017 was the worst fire year for Montana in recorded history.

Originally Posted by musicfamly5

A lot of these things are completely unconnected. The Orca pod off WA coast is mainly in distress due to inbreeding, a lack of salmon (which is a combination of over fishing, WA using dams which trap and kill salmon...no global warming as far as we know.) Other Orca pods that migrate up and down the coast are flourishing since humans never trapped them into the area and forced them to depend on a main food source that we value and heavily consume. The pod off WA is a reclusive and mainly inbreed group that has lost the ability and knowledge to hunt larger prey and untimely will die off as that's what nature does when you don't adapt to your surroundings.

While the Fukushima plant disaster was great and we know the surrounding areas showed high radiation levels, it's unknown what effects it will have on sea life beyond the surrounding area it was released into the water. We're still trying to figure out the effects the atomic bombs have on the current great grandchildren of atomic bomb survivors so it's hard to state that it's changing the sea levels and it probably would be warming the waters and definitely not at the rate your stating.

The fires are a combination of having dry and hot weather and less fire management strategies due to lack of funding and more human populations in previously uninhabited areas leading to increased fire activity due to more fuel in areas with less available water due to the humans. Yes, as global warming trends go up we'll see more fires, but notice that many states with high levels of fire risk like Montana and Idaho don't seem to have as many fires or at least not as many that are declared "out of control". Because people don't live there or the access to the fire is easier for their fire crews (which are better funded then CA, WA, and BC) The fires are controlled and even encouraged to burn down flammable underbrush and weeds to prevent greater fires like you see down in CA.


The connection between them all in the end is human interference. If we helped the Orcas adapt sooner (or not have trapped them at all back in the day) or stopped caring about how much local salmon we wanted to sell to tourist and figured a way to prevent the salmon from dying in the runs due to our need for hydro power we would see both improve. The same can be said about Nuclear energy, despite the toxic and obvious danger nuclear power can do if despite our best and innocent intentions we continue to declare it "clean energy" and choose to use true clean energy like solar or wind. The wildfires are slightly similar, only I believe more controlled burns will be required if we continue to insist on living in areas that will always have a high fire level during the summer. It's importation that many of these things are simply a part of life, we can't change the past only adapt to the future and learn how we can avoid situations and learn from our mistakes. That takes looking at things one at a time despite our desire to connect them all to find a quick fix for everything. It's going to take many steps and most of them won't solve anything like the Orcas, but it's worth continuing to look at them all and making a commitment to doing what we individually can to not contribute (don't eat local salmon until the proper levels are restored, don't move into a new housing development build on former forest land without a large body of water, volunteer as a emergency firefighter, petition for more solar/wind power in your state and the removal of man made dams)

[flyingsaucermom]

Originally Posted by rupp-certified

2015 was much worse than last year, I'm not sure how he could have forgotten that...

I'll chime in as a dog walker (meaning I'm outside everyday).. 2015 was bad in terms of heat and the wildfire in WA was worse. [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Washington_wildfires[/url]

But 2017 was worse in terms of smoke. Just that the smoke came from outside Washington state most of the time (BC, CA and some from WA).

2018 is similar to last year.. the smoke is mostly coming from BC and CA.

[Botev1912]

Originally Posted by rupp-certified

2015 was much worse than last year, I'm not sure how he could have forgotten that...

People easily forget the past. Many people don't even remember what happened 3 months ago.