Here in Seattle, we’re getting hit with smoke from a bunch of Canadian forest fires; during the day, a light haze overlies everything. Last night at sunset the sun was dull red, and so dim you could just about look at it; and later on the moon was a glorious orange-red color.
This morning I walked down to our basement laundry room, which has an east-facing window, and was startled by the lovely rosy tint of the light streaming out of the doorway.
This haze has other good points: It definitely moderated temperatures last week, which were supposed to hit 100 and instead ended up in the 90s.
I’m slightly south of you. I’ll grant that temps haven’t been as stifling as predicted. In exchange for that, we get air quality problems and warnings about the same. The red moon is pretty and all, but I’d prefer to be able to see the mountains and breathe safely. Not to mention the damage the fires themselves are causing.
Have you thought about changing your username to Sunny Haze for this thread?
Here in Bellevue it seems a bit better today. At least it is still relatively cool compared to the later part of last week. But the haze is still pretty bad.
We took a trip down to Portland on Thursday and Friday. Man, that heat was brutal.
I’m glad it’s keeping the heat down, but I still want it to go away. I live on Poverty Bay and last week we could barely see Maury Island because of the haze. It has gotten a little better. This morning there was fog on the lower part of the island, but we could see that the smoke was holding it down.
I’ve lived here my entire life and have never seen anything like it.
It’s all due to a pine beetle epidemic. This is an interesting article if you have a NatGeo subscription. If you don’t, you can still sort of read it. Stop the page from loading to avoid the adblocker begging page if you want and read below the nag screen. It’s a little dark, but it’s readable and still scrolls.
I’m in Tacoma, which is supposed to have the worst air quality from these fires. They’re saying that even healthy people should stay indoors.
I always think of my Dad, who spent the last years of his life dealing with emphysema and COPD. I worry about other people like him. He quit smoking 20 years before symptoms started appearing because he saw what cigarettes did to his brother. Still, even after so long, it caught up with him and his last years were a struggle. Kids, you don’t want to go like that. Quit smoking as soon as you can.
