Here too in Beaverton. And they said it would be 81° today, but it’s only 65° right now at 3:15.
Isn’t this just what we need. Some right-wing militia idiots are setting up their own checkpoints on evacuation routes in Oregon because they heard that antifa started the fires on purpose.
Does this feel like a first world country right now? Not so much.
And where are they hearing this rumor?: QAnon.
…911 dispatchers being overrun with calls about a false online rumor that “Antifa” members had been arrested for setting the fires — a claim promoted by the anonymous account behind the QAnon conspiracy theories.
Was I imagining it, or did air quality get a lot worse fast after about 2pm? I noticed it was worse on leaving work than it had been at my afternoon break, and I’m pretty sure it got worse some more while I was at Walmart.
This infuriates me. It can’t be legal. I hope they’re arrested.
Speaking of false rumors flying around, here’s the NYT claiming that the Mayor of Portland has ordered evacuations. He has not. (The statement is in the photo caption, not the body of the article.)
Actually they corrected it. That was fast.
CDF has the El Dorado fire over 40% contained and are just mopping up hot spots while it burn itself out on scree and the scar from the Apple and Valley fires. So our air quality is getting better every day.
Smoke level in Portland this morning was grim, hanging right down to the ground. I think this is the result of all that smoke that got sucked out to sea now being brought back inland by the prevailing west winds. The prediction is that by Tuesday, the wind and the rain will clear the smoke out of here for the time being. Firefighters are finally being able to go on the offensive to clear fire lines, etc., which is good. Some of the evacuation zones have been downgraded. My house is only a few blocks from the Clackamas County line (the entire county has been under some level of evac status), so we’ve been pretty stressed out for the past week, hoping that things didn’t move more in our direction.
All that said, we’re far from over this, as the weather can change. They’re finding that out in southern Oregon and northern CA where winds are now gusting up to 40mph.
All these rumors about antifa setting fires and looting homes is just infuriating, as none of it is true. And if someone points a gun at me, he’d better be ready to pull the trigger before I jam it up his ass.
I agree with everything you wrote. We’re a few miles from one of the mid-Valley fires. AQI is 460 and rising, which still represents an improvement on the last few days.
We have been running the circulating fan non-stop to help filter the air in the house. It does a pretty good job of it. I can’t imagine what people are doing if they don’t have that capability.
The air quality here has been “unhealthy” at best for the last few days. It starts rising evening and stays worse over night. Based on past nights, I expect we’ll get to hazardous within the next few hours. I’ve been relying on the filtration system on the house HVAC, but I’m wondering if I should get an air purifier too.
The fires here seem to be nearly controlled. Hopefully we can send aid up to OR and WA.
Wildfire smoke evidently has reached the US-89 corridor in Wyoming.
And we’re back to “beyond index” (over 500) in Portland. The promised clearing is looking delayed now too. We can’t go anywhere inside because of covid, we can’t go outside with the smoke. This just sucks unbelievably.
If there is an upside, it is that people are finally isolating like they should have been all along, but for a different reason.
We’re still smoky here, but not like Spokane, where my daughter lives. They’re at 498–not quite the Beyond Index Portland is experiencing, but too damn close. 
I don’t think California is slated to get any rain, is it? What will stop the fires if they don’t get rain? 33 million acres of forest is a lot to burn through.
Existing fires in California are getting under control, but there is still a lot of smoke. It’s not anything like as bad here (San Francisco) as it is in Portland or Spokane (right now we’re at 175-190 based on purpleair). The smoke has been very gradually lessening day by day, but our usual respite from bad air is the ocean, and that’s where most of the old smoke is. So I don’t know how long this is going on. The weather app on my phone is predicting improvement by Tuesday, but I’m skeptical. We have lunch reservations Tuesday for Sam’s in Half Moon Bay. Not sure if we’re going to go.
The air quality index here in Portland is 439(Dangerous) right now, and it isn’t expected to go below “Dangerous” any time this week.
California rainy season doesn’t generally begin until mid-November. Some of the worst fires in California history have been in October…which is a disquieting thought.