Both of you, I’m gonna send days and days worth of clear, sweet prairie air as soon as I figure out the whole west to east prevailing winds thing. Till then take care and be safe. {{
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Boo
Thanks, BBB. For us here in the Bay Area we have comparatively nothing to complain about. Our air is gross, but only half as gross as Portland – and we’re at no risk of fire. (knocks on wood, turns around 3 times and spits).
At some point in the near future we will wake up to a sunny day with clean air – and it will be the most wonderful thing.
Suffer, I suspect.
We’re in Douglas County, just southwest of Roseburg. The school I work at is only a couple of miles from one of the fire lines, which has had me laying awake at night since… Tuesday I guess. The campus is closed and there are no onsite classes so there are no students in danger, which is a blessing.
A distant relative of my wife lost her home last week. I don’t know the details but she only had a few minutes to get ready and evacuate. Her house was destroyed. In the panic of gathering things she somehow missed the urn containing her husband’s ashes, it was lost along with everything else. Two of my coworkers have had to evacuate, one is now in Pacific City which apparently has much cleaner air, and the other is… I dunno. He’s not answering emails or texts so at this point I’m just keeping my fingers crossed.
Another friend lived on FWS land – her husband worked at the fish hatchery up the N. Umpqua – and they lost their house as well.
The smoke looks like a thick fog. It’s so thick that a row of houses across the highway from me, maybe 400 yards away, are completely obscured. Everyone is driving with their lights on. I had to run to the store last night and drove with my fog lights on. When I returned I hopped into the shower because I could smell the smoke on my skin, even though I had only been exposed to it for a few minutes.
The current air quality number is 447, which is actually down a bit from yesterday. But schools are closed, garbage trucks aren’t running, and the whole world has basically come to a standstill. Someone is building a house behind ours; a crew showed up this morning and worked for about 20 minutes before taking off. I assume it was because of the smoke.
Our house is sealed pretty well which I’m thankful for. We don’t have any air filters but we’re keeping the windows closed (obviously), not running the bathroom exhaust fans, and opening the doors as infrequently as possible. I have no idea what the air quality is in the house, but it’s certainly much better than outside. I’ve been fighting headaches since Tuesday which I suspect is due to the smoke.
Yup, until yesterday we just suffered like Lancia. My HVAC doesn’t have a fan-on setting, it runs only with heat. Things finally got bad enough yesterday that I opened up the control panel and figured out how to short-circuit it to turn on the blower. It has helped somewhat.
I really feel for you guys. If my house wasn’t so small, I’d welcome evacuees to stay here, but we literally only have room for the two of us. Air quality in Portland is up in the 400s also, although we’re supposed to get some relief in the next few days with the approaching low.
Good job, man! My only worry is that the fan motor will crap out because of long run times. I shut it off for a few hours each day to try to forestall that, then turn it back on when we start coughing and sneezing. I buy good filters for the furnace, which really helps trap particles.
I have to admit, I’m getting discouraged. Our 80% chance of rain tonight has dwindled to 50%. The air quality index shows us slightly improved, yet we’ve been downgraded to Very Unhealthy on all the air quality sites.
There’s a message in all this, but too many people don’t want to see it. Science denial is a powerful thing, apparently.
One of my relatives told me that the rising thermals from all the fires broke up a high pressure area that was bringing the big heat, so that the cooling wasn’t just due to shade. I haven’t seen that anywhere online, so I don’t know how seriously to take it.
Let’s hold off on considering this a blessing…
Los Angeles Times (9/14/20)
Extraordinary heat, rare summer snow brought unprecedented West Coast firestorms
As the blast of cold air in the Rocky Mountains sank, it searched for an escape — the lands of hotter weather farther west, toward the Pacific Coast. That triggered furious winds that poured over the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges, acting as a giant bellows over the entire Pacific Coast, where fires were already burning in crackling-dry brush and timber.
My air would be temperate midwestern air 55-70 degrees, soft, calm. Perhaps a whiff of beef cattle, but heck, that’s the smell of money.
Driving up the 5, past Coalinga, I’ve smelled that “money”. No thanks. 
My air would come from Lincoln, the capital. The only smell of money is from the lobbyist’s pockets and they launder it first, before it is out in the open air.
When you’re in the vicinity, you can do a Facebook check-in from “Stinky Cows on I-5”. I’ve done it.
Nice westerly wind drove smoke over me so thick I don’t need to use toothpaste. Down to about 1/2 mile visibility today. Unreal. Eyes watering, throat sore, nose has given up.
San Francisco weather forecaster is predicting that the new Pacific front is on its way and will significantly clear the air Wednesday or maybe Thursday. Temperatures in northern California to remain below normal for the next several days. Possibly at least a small break in the bleakness of life.
This afternoon I saw some sky, cloud and sun through the smoke layer, but at ground level the smoke was still pretty dense. According to airnow.gov the AQI here in Corvallis is 345. Until last September I lived in the Rogue Valley for over 20 years and I was really looking forward to escaping the smokey summers. Just can’t get away from this stuff I guess.
That would be Harris Ranch feed lot, HUGE place, right next to the freeway. You can’t miss it, depending on which way the wind is blowing. Just a few miles south of that is their Harris Ranch Restaurant, which is really good, and even has its own private little airport and they give 10% or maybe 15% off to people who fly in.
(ETA: A bit father back in the hills to the west, there are other humongous feedlots too.)
New weather blog from Daniel Swain. Change of weather, but still not a lot of relief. Good photos, though.
We got a rain shower yesterday and another last night. They made ZERO difference in the AQ. We’re still at Very Unhealthy. I’ve lived in the western US my entire adult life and have been through many fire seasons. This is the first time rain hasn’t made even a slight, temporary difference.
In a way, I wish the whole country were experiencing this. Maybe then we’d finally recognize the root cause and do something about it.
Here in the Bay Area our AQI is 84. First time it’s been double digits in a week.
Right, San Francisco is all in the yellow now. Time to open a few windows.