Northwest smoky summers shouldn't be the new normal
You might want to take a few deep breaths this weekend while you can.
While a push of marine air late last week along the Washington coast has largely cleared smoky skies that had blanketed the Northwest for several days, the reprieve may be brief. The same weather pattern that had allowed wildfire smoke to park itself above communities throughout the state was expected to return this week, forecasters said on Thursday.
The National Weather Service on Friday said smoky conditions were likely to return by Sunday evening, with air quality deteriorating to unhealthy levels Monday and Tuesday.
The smoggy air and smoke, mostly from wildfires burning in Eastern Washington, but also Oregon and British Columbia, prompted alerts for “unhealthy” air by the Puget Sound Clear Air Agency, which advised even fit people not to exercise outdoors — even to avoid walking — in Snohomish, King, Pierce and Kitsap counties. The threat of the fine particulates in the hazy air poses an even greater threat to children, pregnant women and those with lung or heart ailments.
If the spate of bad air quality, similar to one last summer, seems worse than in the past, you’re correct. University of Washington atmospheric scientist Cliff Mass, in his Weather and Climate blog, said he he’s never seen air quality this bad in the region.
“In central Puget Sound it is probably the worst in the nearly two-decade observing record of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency for any time of the year,” Mass wrote in his blog last week.
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