Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Smoke cleaning cycle in progress. Slow improvement in eastern WA

You've gotta see this in action!

Satellite picture around 10:30AM Tuesday shows smoke ahead of and clear conditions behind the well-defined northwest-southeast oriented frontal boundary over western WA.


Next satellite at about 1:30PM shows how the front pushed further east, clearing smoke in its wake.


Western WA has mostly Good air now, though a new fire on Harstine Island sent light smoke toward Tacoma last evening. This is not expected to continue much longer as crews are reportedly making good progress with this ~20 acre fire. Forecast for western WA is for mostly Good air through the weekend, barring new fires.

Forecast for eastern WA

Gradual clearing has already commenced, with more green dots (= Good air) appearing on the map. Wind speeds will ramp up Wednesday & Thursday, elevating fire growth concerns. Today's satellite pictures show smoke from fires in BC, Okanogan and Chelan Counties spilling lots of smoke into eastern WA. Stronger winds will dilute these somewhat, but some smoke is expected. Here's what the Forest Service's BlueSky smoke model is predicting for Friday (darker red = more smoke; a fire near the Methow Valley is not reflected in this).


Forecast is for mostly Good to air further from the fires through about Sunday, while locations closer to the fires shown above could see conditions deteriorate to Moderate or even USG levels. 

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