Current smoke impacts are largely confined to areas downwind of active fires. The Little Giant and Sinlahekin Fires are the primary sources of smoke, and both are expected to produce more smoke today with warmer temperatures and increased winds.
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| Large fires in the region. Source: DNR Wildfire Dashboard. |
Fire Roundup
In the North Cascades, the Border 2 Fire, Luna Fire, and Ptarmigan Fire remain active, although recent rainfall has reduced fire activity.
The Sinlahekin Fire west of Tonasket has grown to over 150,000 acres and is expected to remain active with warmer and drier conditions.
The Little Giant Fire northwest of Leavenworth continues to expand and is now burning over130,000 acres. In addition to natural fire activity, burnout operations associated with efforts to protect structures and increase containment are contributing to additional smoke production.
Smoke production from the Three Queens Fire northwest of Little Kachess Lake (~3,600 acres) has decreased due to recent rain and firefighter efforts.
The Grand Park 2 Fire northeast of Mt. Rainier is now 57% contained and exhibiting moderate fire activity.
Further south, the High Lava Fire in Skamania County has grown to over 1,200 acres, but progress towards containment is increasing with cooler temperatures and increased moisture.
In Northeast WA, smoke production from the Bradeen Hill, Hudspeth, and Mitre Rock Fires are minimal. The Modrite Fire is currently 90% contained, and the Kaiser Canyon Fire is also now 84% contained.
The Paradise and Hagen Fires in Northeast Oregon remain active; smoke from these fires may impact southeast WA later in the week.
Smoke Impacts
In Central Washington, smoke will persist in communities downwind of active fires. This includes Wenatchee, Leavenworth, Chelan, west Grant County, and across the Okanogan and Methow Valleys. Higher-elevation terrain along the Cascades will also remain smoky. While air quality may slightly improve in the afternoons, smoke will settle back into valleys overnight and into the early morning hours. Air Quality Alerts continue for Chelan, Douglas, Grant, and Okanogan Counties.
In Northeast and Southeast Washington, regional smoke transport may lead to hazy skies and moderate air quality, but no significant smoke intrusions are expected today or tomorrow.
Looking ahead
A warming and drying trend later this week will likely increase smoke production from active and emerging fires. Any new fires from lightning holdovers could grow quickly. We'll monitor air quality and update as the week progresses.
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| Mountain embers on the Sinlahekin Fire. Source: Inciweb. |
Today still says the "forecast" is green in Seattle, but actually it is getting far above 50 AQI (yellow to orange) most of the day. How frequently are the models refreshed to reflect current conditions?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. The forecast on this page is first published at 6am and then refined in this morning as needed. We generally don't make updates past about 10am. The forecast for Seattle was issued by the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency--they also may make updates as needed throughout the day as conditions evolve. The forecast also reflects a 24 hour average over a forecast zone--so air quality may be slightly better or worse hour to hour than what is reported for a 24 hour period. There also may be better or worse air quality over different areas of the forecast zone. PSCAA's forecast discussion may mention specific times of day when air quality may be more impaired (https://pscleanair.gov/).
DeleteLooking at the data from today, the maximum hourly AQI recorded at a Seattle area monitoring site is 61.