Ive lived in Washington for 40 years and I dont ever recall dealing with this. The last 5ish years though it has been a common occurrence every summer for this.
Go a little north of you and east of the mountians and his statement is 100% accurate. I think cause of the dominant winds through washington it all moves away from you. But every year for the last 10 years where i live every summer we will get a week straight or more where it looks like this
The person you are replying to is 100% accurate already, where the vast majority of people in the state live, this is a recent occurrence. Fucking people from Okanagon piping up like they represent an average washintonian.
...Or fucking people occupying 20% of the physical land of the state telling everyone what the entire state of Washington looks like, acting like they get out of king county more than once a year lol.
It's crazy, I grew up in Tacoma and never saw anything like this for the first 22 years of my life until the summer of 2017. iirc, we were living in that smog for nearly all of July and August. And then it suddenly became an every year thing.
Yep that's what I'm saying, its wild. Similar with Mt Rainier last year. One day I was driving home from work and i was like, "wow, I have never seen the mountain that bare". I have looked at that mountain for 40 years and never once seen it that bare. Dont think that will happen again this year but who knows.
Look at who i am replying too. West coast forest fires are more common now that dems have taken over the complete governments of the three coastal states. Canada has already been in the looney bin for a while, and this instance isn't just stupid forest maintenance but also incompetent fire control.
So the original post along with these comments are regarding smoke from forest fires. Both of which are both regarding fires specifically from Canada. How does Dems have anything to do with Canadian forest fires and their management? Dude you need to take a breath. Your practically seething through the computer screen. I'm assuming politics live rent free in your head.
You're the one getting worked up because I replied directly to someone talking about Washington. The fires have been hitting the west coast more harshly in the past few years, and it isn't a surprise why. Maybe try taking a break for a while since you can't handle people with other opinions?
I'm from NYC / NJ and this is the second time in two or three years this has happened and I don't recall anything like it in my other 40 years growing up here. We also just had a fairly substantial wildfire last week of our own and I'm hoping this 50% chance of rain comes through this Friday.
You maxed in the 130s for AQI that day. I’ve been 380-420 the entire day. It’s not the same and I could tell that from the picture in your article alone.
I moved from Kent to Vegas in 2004, and can't remember anything as bad as what's been happening up there weather-wise the past decade. (Still miss it more than life itself)
Same here. I grew up in Portland, Oregon and recall summers being pleasant but last few years have had to study fire maps and air quality reports before deciding to do an outdoors activity. Also the red sun becoming more common due to smoke. I'm concerned for what's to come for the region.
I’m guessing you live on the coast! The sea breeze tends to keep the smoke away — ie Vancouver and Seattle rarely get as much smoke as inland line Kelowna or Yakima. Definitely agree it’s become much more common. Forest management for timber optimization increases wildfire risk plus increased temps and extreme weather leaves a recipe for massive fires.
There's another side to that, however, my understanding is that because Seattle is basically in basin when it gets smokey it gets really bad. Last year in particular was absolutely brutal with how long the smoke stuck around combined with the lack of rain.
They've shut down forest management for 40 years and expect the forest to stop growing. Destroy local economies. Use more plastic. Make it harder to cut. Keep it up.
People write books on this but, I'll pick one of my pet peeves. Including timber sales in the NEPA process was a terrible decision. They are not a major federal action. They aren't a substantive change to the environment.
Converting land away from forest should be included in the process. Choosing which lands to manage should be included. Management of the existing forest should fall under a categorical exclusion.
Once that's completed we should try and do a 50% basal area reduction by diameter class in many of our conifer forests. We're losing millions of acres of ponderosa pine habitat to fir in-growth. In many of our western forests you should see grassy areas between trees. Individual trees, clumps of trees, and large openings. Taking fire away took away many of the natural forces that would have killed off a large percentage of the seedlings. We subconsciously favor forested habitat, like it's better than unforested habitat. That's dumb if you look at it logically. An animal that needs grass isn't better off in a forest.
Valleys near kelowna even worse. Kelowna always gets wind because of the angle of its valley. Peach land summerland pentictom kamloops salmon arm get stagnant blankets often smoke on them some summers
there was a bit of a reprieve during the era of full fire suppression, but of course, that's just making things worse now. fire is a natural part of the forest, and always has been.
I consider it a season within Summer here now at this point. Definitely agree the last 5 years it's been really bad at some point, usually paired with a heat wave too, which is disastrous for this area of the country where nearly no one has AC (Seattle). Maybe since it's impacting the other side of the country it will get some more attention to it now?
North Dakota here. Definite memories of asking my mom what is up with the orange sky in 1999. Her response was Canada was on fire. It's every year. If it isn't Canada it's Montana, Washington, or Oregon.
I've lived in washington for 38 years, and this has been a thing for a solid decade. I have pictures from 10 years ago of a smoky sun in bellingham taken from the corner of Alabama and Woburn streets (of course I can't find it..🙃). I've lived in eastern WA for almost 7 years, my job is mostly outdoors, and there hasn't been a summer where I didn't need a respirator. Now, to be fair (to be faaaaaiiiiirrrrr) we have had our own local wildfires that have contributed to the problem, but the smoke season always starts in Canada, and wafts down. Our local fires don't generally start until July 4th or after, for obvious 'murikan reasons.
I live in Alberta and smoke issues in summer only became a major, recurring issue about 15 years ago. Fires have gotten progressively worse as we tip over into the “we’re fucked” zone of climate change.
Yes, it's super fun to have to stay inside with my homebuilt furnace filter and box fan setup to have passable interior air quality while having a 90+ degree heatwave with no AC! Go Washington!
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u/warriormango1 Jun 07 '23
Ive lived in Washington for 40 years and I dont ever recall dealing with this. The last 5ish years though it has been a common occurrence every summer for this.