Wildfires are bad this year in the PNW

[myredracer]

Have never seen it this bad in my nearly 65 years of living in the southwest corner of BC. It's about 9:30 am and the sun is a dull orange ball from all the smoke. It was dark all day yesterday from the smoke and smelled of smoke. The smoke was trapping heat and preventing it from escaping into the atmosphere - got really humid and also very warm for Sept.

The smoke is apparently mostly from Wa. state and some from Oregon. There is a bad fire east of Portland up the Columbia Gorge. Last month BC was sending smoke into Washington, but things are much worse now and is coming up to us fro WA. Two summers ago was bad for wildfires around here but this is even worse. Last summer was fairly "normal".

It rained almost non-stop every day this spring here, and at the start of summer, the clouds suddenly disappeared and never came back.
Just had to get a tanker truck fill our surface well for the first time and decent rain could be months away.

Glad we went on our annual RV-ing vacation in early August this year instead of the usual Aug./Sept. Have been thinking of an early fall trip to a CG in the Cascades in WA or OR but may have to head out to the coast. It's looking like the next couple of months are going to be dry which will not be good for wildfires. Almost made it to Yellowstone NP last summer but bailed out at last minute due to a fire nearby in Montana.

This is an interesting 12 minute video of fighting wildfires in Colorado from a firefighter's perspective and how climate change is affecting it. Fighting Colorado Widfires. Don't want to debate climate change, but all the scientific evidence is out there and what it's doing and what the predictions are for the future.

[myredracer]

Forecast for today was an insignificant sprinkle of rain less than 1mm (approx. 1/16"). Woke up this morning to heavy rainfall instead. It's not often I welcome rain around here but this is wonderful. The sun is supposed to return on Sunday. Hope it is at least cooler from now on.

This has been an unprecedented year for forest fires in BC with over 2.7 million acres affected to date. We need a lot more rain in the coming weeks to get the fires under control and there isn't any heavy and sustained rain in the forecast yet. It's expected there will be a significant impact on the forestry industry.

A high temp. record was smashed this past Monday at 38C (100F). It's been so dry and crispy around our province, it doesn't take much for a fire to start.

[frankdamp]

No more smoke hanging around our area of Western WA (San Juan islands). It's dull and raining hard this morning, so those are rain clouds, not smoke.

[TurnThePage]

Eastern Washington and northern Idaho is totally bogged in the smoke too. Unlike the coastal area, we are at least 10 degrees cooler due to it blocking the sun (the only silver lining). Nobody is outside longer than necessary for almost a week now. It's crazy. This last 12 months have been filled with weather extremes around here to such an extent, that many outdoor projects of mine have died on the vine, including needed RV maintenance.

[Paul_Clancy]

We are at 3 months with no rain and record heat and fires following record spring flooding in bc interior. All the human causes fires (no storms so no lightning)make me very sad. Saw a fool in an Audi drop a cig butt out his window and wanted to run him off the road. Wow people are fools.

[JimK-NY]

We are currently west of the Columbia Gorge fires. Smoke has reduced the sunshine by way more than half. It is still better than what we experienced in western Montana and near Spokane. On the positive side, the smoke is reducing the heat. Temperatures were predicted at about 100 degrees for Walla Walla but are only in the mid 80s. I prefer the smoke to the heat.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

🙂 Hi, smoke has been hanging around here in Salem for a few weeks. Yesterday is was snowing tiny ashes.

[romore]

The smoke has been bad here as well although it is intermittent. One day clear, the next we can't see across the valley. One of our favourite campgrounds in the south Cariboo has been completely destroyed, it breaks our hearts.
We have not had measurable rain since June, today is the first with temps not in the 90's for quite a while. Tourism is down, the farmers and ranchers are taking a beating. I like summer as much as anybody but a break would be nice.

[rhagfo]

donn0128 wrote:
Basically all of Oregon west of hwy97 is under smoke. Even the coast, at least the south coast has been. We got home Aug1 from Central Oregon, smoke from the fires started at the crest of the Cascades and in the valley is was and still is horrible. Never in 71 years have I seen it this bad. I understand way back when the Tillamook burn was raging the region was like this, but that was before my time.

Yes, smoky here at Newport, not nearly as bad as Hillsboro was yesterday it was snowing ash! Just lightly, but noticeable in the air and on cars.

[Sandia_Man]

We have been experiencing quite a bit of haze here in NM from wildfires in the PNW according to local meteorologists, recently the jetstream has been bringing in the smoke from that region which we normally would get from fires in CO or AZ. I don't think many question the fact that the earth is warming up, just as it has done in the past. Main concern is how much human existence is accelerating the process, and can the world unite in slowing it down. The USA is still a major contributor to this issue although we have stringent guidelines in place for many of our stateside industries, other countries do not have the money or technologies to participate to a degree that would benefit the current situation.

[hugemoth]

The smoke in Bend Oregon is really bad and has been so for weeks now. I've lived here for 33 years and have never seen this much smoke over a period of so many weeks.

[donn0128]

Basically all of Oregon west of hwy97 is under smoke. Even the coast, at least the south coast has been. We got home Aug1 from Central Oregon, smoke from the fires started at the crest of the Cascades and in the valley is was and still is horrible. Never in 71 years have I seen it this bad. I understand way back when the Tillamook burn was raging the region was like this, but that was before my time.

[snowpeke]

I have reservations for Crater Lake next week, yesterday they closed the north entrance. If it's to smoky I am heading to the coast.

[ksg5000]

It's terrible. I was hoping to do some camping in Central Oregon now that kids are back in school but friends tell me that it's too smokey to enjoy. I read that the fire near Portland was caused by some 15 yr old who threw a smoke bomb/fire cracker off the trail into the crown of a tree - reckless and stupid move.

[Durb]

I have lived in the Portland Metro area for 38 years. Other than Mount St. Helens, we have never had ash rain down on us like now. The fire in the scenic Columbia River Gorge is heartbreaking, started by fireworks.