When I woke up this morning, I immediately knew something wasn’t right. The smell of smoke and ash rifled me out of bed, worried there was a fire in the house. Then I remembered there had been a significant wind event, and that we’d been warned of the bad air quality coming. I just didn’t think it would be this bad. You can hardly breathe out there; there’s so much ash in the air that you can taste it on your tongue. The haze reminds me of a typical blanket of fog we’d see in winter.
It’s a
remarkable event for these parts, causing what may be the smokiest morning in
Seattle history. What made it work meteorologically is last night there
was a type of windstorm that only occurs once every 30 years. This type
happens when high winds from the east come over the Cascades due to extreme
atmospheric pressure differences on both sides of the mountains. Normally
this happens once every few years, but hardly ever in the summer. Being
that it’s wildfire season, the event is a double blow (no pun intended), for
the wind has taken a lot of the smoke from the east and trapped it on our side
of the state.
What
might make it worse is the record heat coming in the next few days.
Forecasters are predicting 90+ degree temperatures tomorrow and Thursday.
From now until Friday, the air will just sit here and pool up, until a
benevolent onshore flow saves the day and blows it all away. In the
meantime, we’ll have to stay inside with the windows closed to keep our lungs
healthy- an unpleasant prospect considering the high temperatures. It
certainly fits the theme of 2020: the year of “I Can’t Breathe!”
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