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Old 05-16-2021, 08:48 PM
 
Location: Vancouver, WA
8,213 posts, read 16,691,071 times
Reputation: 9463

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After last year's fires and associated terrible air quality, we are already getting warnings from the county (Clark) to begin preparing for fire season. Buy new air filters ahead of time (before sold out). Make sure the HVAC system is working, etc...

So far, the numbers are great. It's too bad they probably can't remain like this all summer. Last year things started getting worse about this time or toward the end of May. By June everything shifted to dangerous air quality. Our kids were just getting out of school and we had to alter plans for hiking/backpacking trips, etc...

As other locals know who were here last year, it was hard to even breath outdoors let alone exercise. So, each week with clean air like this throughout summer is a gift as far as I'm concerned. It feels a bit like living on borrowed time. So far, so good. But with so little rain, it can't last forever. Here are the good numbers for today I'm grateful for.




-- https://enviwa.ecology.wa.gov/home/map

Derek
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Old 05-16-2021, 08:56 PM
 
656 posts, read 1,990,821 times
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I am grateful for the good air quality. The things these last few years have taught me to never take for granted --- good air quality has sure been one of them.

Thank you for reminding us! What a beautiful weekend in Camas it has been. I am grateful.
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Old 05-16-2021, 10:07 PM
 
Location: Portal to the Pacific
8,736 posts, read 8,665,433 times
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Hmmm.... maybe it was bad in your corner of WA, but things were still fine through at least mid-July in places I ventured... Whidbey Island was still great end of June for our weekend get-a-way... and I still have a FB post of me wearing my WINTER coat first week of July (and flexing to my TX hometown friends!) here in the Eastside.

When we got to 2nd week of August without smoke I think some, like meteorologist Cliff Mass, were ready to do a smoke-free victory dance. Even I was optimistic....

And then the first week of September happened. It wasn't so bad at first, but then for 2 weeks it was terrible, particularly the weekend of September 11th. We had to cancel our trip to the Islands. Truly miserable.
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Old 05-17-2021, 01:00 AM
 
Location: Vancouver, WA
8,213 posts, read 16,691,071 times
Reputation: 9463
Quote:
Originally Posted by flyingsaucermom View Post
Hmmm.... maybe it was bad in your corner of WA, but things were still fine through at least mid-July in places I ventured... Whidbey Island was still great end of June for our weekend get-a-way... and I still have a FB post of me wearing my WINTER coat first week of July (and flexing to my TX hometown friends!) here in the Eastside.

When we got to 2nd week of August without smoke I think some, like meteorologist Cliff Mass, were ready to do a smoke-free victory dance. Even I was optimistic....

And then the first week of September happened. It wasn't so bad at first, but then for 2 weeks it was terrible, particularly the weekend of September 11th. We had to cancel our trip to the Islands. Truly miserable.
Yes, actually you're right about the worst of it hitting later toward the end of summer. We did get some early summer smoke as well coming up the Gorge due to fires out east. But it was nothing like the onslaught later in September caused by multiple huge fires in Oregon destroying over 2000 homes. That looked like a war zone. Hopefully this year we don't see anything close to that level of destruction by fire.

Derek
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Old 05-17-2021, 10:18 AM
 
Location: Northwest Peninsula
6,223 posts, read 3,406,555 times
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Solution....outlaw forest fires.
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Old 05-17-2021, 06:07 PM
 
17,301 posts, read 12,236,388 times
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We're moving east first week of July. I hope it holds out at least that long as we're in a short term rental for now with no a/c and that would be truly miserable.
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Old 05-17-2021, 10:28 PM
 
Location: Forest bathing
3,203 posts, read 2,483,098 times
Reputation: 7268
Quote:
Originally Posted by flyingsaucermom View Post
Hmmm.... maybe it was bad in your corner of WA, but things were still fine through at least mid-July in places I ventured... Whidbey Island was still great end of June for our weekend get-a-way... and I still have a FB post of me wearing my WINTER coat first week of July (and flexing to my TX hometown friends!) here in the Eastside.

When we got to 2nd week of August without smoke I think some, like meteorologist Cliff Mass, were ready to do a smoke-free victory dance. Even I was optimistic....

And then the first week of September happened. It wasn't so bad at first, but then for 2 weeks it was terrible, particularly the weekend of September 11th. We had to cancel our trip to the Islands. Truly miserable.
We headed east over the North Cascades after Labor Day and the skies were clear until Colville. Smoky skies until we hit Great Falls, Montana. We missed some great scenery due all the hazy smoke.
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Old 05-17-2021, 10:41 PM
 
Location: Portal to the Pacific
8,736 posts, read 8,665,433 times
Reputation: 13007
Quote:
Originally Posted by xPlorer48 View Post
We headed east over the North Cascades after Labor Day and the skies were clear until Colville. Smoky skies until we hit Great Falls, Montana. We missed some great scenery due all the hazy smoke.
That's right. Didn't it drift in from the east? I went to go look at a property (hobby farm we ended up buying) and it was just starting. Just a haze really. We put in an offer, it got accepted. We were on our way to the Islands, trying to figure out the home loan and whether it was worth getting on the ferry with the degrading air quality. Decided to head home. Which was the prudent choice as we had left the kids (teenagers) and cats and we ended up all holed up for two or three days straight. It was something like 400-450pm2.5 from Friday through the following Thursday.
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Old 05-18-2021, 11:22 AM
 
Location: Forest bathing
3,203 posts, read 2,483,098 times
Reputation: 7268
Quote:
Originally Posted by flyingsaucermom View Post
That's right. Didn't it drift in from the east? I went to go look at a property (hobby farm we ended up buying) and it was just starting. Just a haze really. We put in an offer, it got accepted. We were on our way to the Islands, trying to figure out the home loan and whether it was worth getting on the ferry with the degrading air quality. Decided to head home. Which was the prudent choice as we had left the kids (teenagers) and cats and we ended up all holed up for two or three days straight. It was something like 400-450pm2.5 from Friday through the following Thursday.
Yes, last summer was relatively smoke free, iirc. We had to keep driving east to finally escape it. We had to miss Glacier N P and exploring the eastern front of the Rockies near Augusta, MT. Driving down the scenic Swan River Valley was an anticipated trip but the vistas were obliterated by the haze. The locals told us the smoke was from California fires. Whenever we had a cell signal, I would check out each area of Montana for their visibility index.
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Old 06-07-2021, 10:55 AM
 
Location: Embarrassing, WA
3,405 posts, read 2,731,049 times
Reputation: 4412
It seems like it's drier this year and I'd expect the smoke to be worse than last year. Last year we had pretty mild weather and rain, and it wasn't until August that things got really dry and the smoke came. We had over 300ppm with certain areas being 380-425ppm and it was awful, literally like heavy fog that never lifted for 3 weeks.
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