It’s Friday. Once again, hoping our Oregon and California BJ peeps can check in and let us know how you’re doing. Colorado is doing better, that much I know.
Portland fires are moving scary-fast.
Stay safe.
Evacuation Levels
- Level 1: READY – Level 1 evacuations are an Alert. Residents should be aware of a danger that exists. …
- Level 2: SET – Level 2 evacuations indicate there is a significant risk to your area. Now is the time to be set for immediate evacuation. …
- Level 3: GO! – Level 3 means there is immediate danger.
Update: Saturday’s check-in.
VeniceRiley
Orange county is OK. Sky is merely slightly yellow.
J. Squid
We are in a greenish, yellowish gloom in inner NE Portland. The air quality is awful with no relief in sight. We can hope that the diminished winds and rising humidity will allow us to control the fires. Until then, everybody will be staying indoors as much as possible.
WaterGirl
Even leaving everything else aside, it seems like the sky being the wrong color would be disturbing at very basic level.
Anotherlurker
East Bay here. Very smoky . Air is bad enough so that my eyes are constantly burning and itching.
Llelldorin
Hayward, CA here — East Bay. Seconding Anotherlurker, it’s very smoky, but much much less orange than Wednesday.
Llelldorin
@WaterGirl:
You’re not wrong. It was less the wrong color and more the darkness—you couldn’t see indoors at noon without turning the lights on. It was a bit like a day-long eclipse.
dmsilev
LA area; very hazy, but no orange-glow skies. Even though the Sun is well up, the color is more a “just before sunset” orange. The mountains that are only a few miles from me and normally easily seen are now completely invisible.
Nearest fire to me is the Bobcat; I’m not in any evacuation-warning zone, but the zone boundaries aren’t all that far away from me so keeping a close eye on things.
Sphouch
I am just outside Everett WA, near the Sound and away from the fires. We can see the haze and smell the smoke, but other than air quality, are faring well. Concerns for the folks and critters on the other side of the mountain.
Edmund Dantes
Bay Area peninsula. Horrible air quality today. Smells like you are right next to a Smokey campfire. Otherwise sky is just a pale yellow today.
Kelly
Copied from morning thread:
We are still with our friends near Oregon City, where we have been since evacuating from the Santiam/Beachie fire in the wee hours Monday morning. Yesterday afternoon our current haven was bumped up to a level 2 “be set” evac status. Level 3 “get out” evac zone was moved to within 10 miles of here. All this was accompanied by news the firefighters were retreating as their situation was too dangerous. A tense afternoon. We’ve have friends that will take in the cats and us in west Portland if we have to flee again. Slept well last night.
Situation at home seems to be stabilizing. As I said yesterday our house is fine. About half the neighborhood homes burned. Got an email from the power company that they are working on power to our house. With widespread power failures to fix I don’t think they bother if it looks like the fires would ruin it again.
Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll
JOHN MANCHESTER
I’m in San Rafael in the North Bay. The purple air app shows the entire Bay Area in the 300+ range (hazardous.) But at least the sun came up. And we have 2 HEPA filters. So as long as it doesn’t get too hot and PG&E doesn’t cut the power again, we’ll be okay.
I’ve been walking the dog wearing an N95 mask. Not today. I’m not even going outside to get the mail.
Ever since the pandemic I’ve been dreading another fire season. My anxious mind usually projects a grimmer future. This time the reality is worse than I could have imagined.
Tim C.
Portland native and resident here. Portland the city is actually only dealing with crappy air-quality at the moment. Everyone is hunkered down inside, and to complete the stereotype, I will relax tonight drinking a local micro brewed IPA.
That said, just southeast of the city in communities like Molalla, Estacada and Sandy, things are very scary right now. Those are all decent sized towns that are either being evacuated or are on level 2. The only bright news is that locally the reason the smoke is so bad is because the winds have died down. That makes the fires grow much slower and are easier to fight.
Portland abides my fellow jackals, Portland abides.
Mallard Filmore
South end of California’s big valley: cool morning in the mid 60’s. The sky is gray with a brown tint, no clear shadows. No smell of smoke.
JOHN MANCHESTER
@WaterGirl: It is deeply disturbing. Wednesday here in the Bay Area even my dog was freaked out by the sky.
The Dark Avenger
Here in southeast Tulare County the skies are overcast but the local AQI is 72 and it’s only suppose to get to 88 today.
namekarB
It has been the same in Lincoln CA – NE of Sacramento on the eastern edge of the Great Sacramento Valley Desert. Today is ever so slightly improved. Sky is less orange but still yellowish haze.
It makes me wonder if the “But Freedom” maskless 27% have enough sense to wear a mask in this fetid outdoor thin soup we have for atmosphere. The silver lining (if there is one) is that the smoke and haze has dropped the daytime temperatures by 20 degrees. Quite a change from the 110 degree highs of last week.
Kelly
Nearby DEQ air quality pm 2.5 readings are 161 to 275. The reading a mile from our home is 452
Steeplejack (phone)
WaterGirl
@JOHN MANCHESTER: I teared up when I read the your dog was freaked out by the sky. There’s no explaining to a dog; they just know that something is terribly wrong.
Distressing.
WaterGirl
@Kelly: 452 would be Holy Fuck level, right?
namekarB
I read that Oregon just brought in firefighters from Mexico. I hope they are being treated as the Good Neighbors and Heroes that they are.
surfk9
Lodi here, we have smoke mixed with fog. It is low hanging giving it a smokey look without the smell. hopefully it will burn off soon.
Martin
Reminder that if we do a Green New Deal correctly, consumers will save money, and we’ll create more jobs than we’ll lose. It doesn’t need to be expensive. It will need a heavy regulatory hand, and it will involve a lot of shifting of products and workers.
Martin
@WaterGirl: 452 is roughly an infinite pack per day habit.
West of the Rockies
Butte County, home of the ’18 Camp Fire. The fire near Oroville is 23% contained as of 12 hours ago, so that’s decent news. Air is super smoky, ash every-damn-where, and the sky is the color of an aging, yellow bruise.
West of the Rockies
@Martin: But what about my freedumb to ingest and inhale lead, mercury, and carcinogens?
chrisanthemama
@Kelly: We’re here in Tigard (12 miles SW of downtown Portland), in no danger. You know what the air looks/smells like. We have evacuees staying with neighbors and we’re staying inside with the windows closed tight. Be safe, all, and pray for rain.
Kelly
@WaterGirl: Yep and I’ve seen worse numbers. There is a Purple air network of home air quality meters the show 700+ in a bunch of places closer to the active fire. Not confident Purple Air is as reliable as the DEQ
The Moar You Know
Sky is a peaceful shade of mostly grey with a tinge of orange here in San Diego, as skies are during the apocalypse. The upper-atmosphere smoke/haze is way up there and getting blown down from points between Riverside and Seattle, but it’s not on the ground and air quality is “moderate” so that’s OK. Think the only fire within a hundred miles of me is largely contained as of today. We had our big burns in 2003 and 2007
ETA: my dog has definitely noticed that the sky is different, but it doesn’t bother him very much. Given that he’s on anxiety meds because he can’t be walked on streets (even on meds) that he just gives it a glance and is like “OK, whatever” and that means it’s just not that bad here.
Nicole
Thanks for posting this thread, Watergirl, and thanks everyone out West for their updates. Thanking about all of you every time I open up my News application and see another frightening article about the fires.
Louise B.
I am in inner NW Portland. Just checked the nearest AQI, and it is at 488. Air quality is horrible, even indoors. The strong east winds, which drove the fires, have died down, and the westerly winds are expected to pick up later today, which will help with the fire fight. The losses suffered by residents in some of our communities have been horrific, and some of the most beautiful forests and river canyons in the country are gone, possibly for good given climate change. With all this on top of the pandemic, haven’t felt this depressed in a long time.
Geoduck
Olympia, WA: It’s hazy, but the sun isn’t red and it doesn’t actually smell that bad..
WaterGirl
@Kelly: Wow, even if it’s not totally accurate, that’s a whole different scale. Yikes.
Trollhattan
@WaterGirl:
Scale nominally caps at 500 so yeah, worst of the worst. We’re a mere 210 ATM in Sac.
Cacti
The average month to date high temperature here in Western, WA has been 92 degrees. In September.
Yesterday it got up to 94.
This is not normal.
Good thing climate change is a hoax.
Cowgirl in the Sandi
We escaped the East Bay for a few days and are hiding out in Cambria on the Central Coast. It’s VERY foggy here and occasionally we smell smoke. On Monday when we arrived and through Tuesday, ash was falling like snow. No ash now – just fog but when we went to Paso Robles yesterday the sky was gray and the sun was orange. Good thing there’s plenty of wine here.
WaterGirl
@Trollhattan: It’s shocking. And the White House doesn’t pick up their fucking phone in response.
Haydnseek
12 miles east of Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley here. The Bobcat Fire is enormous, with 0% containment. I need to do some things outside but the smoke makes that impossible. Evacuation warnings in place for several cities, but no actual evacuation orders yet. That could change in a hurry if the wind picks up and starts blowing southward. Last night I could see the fire line from my kitchen window. Not tonight though. The smoke is much too thick.
Martin
@West of the Rockies: You’re welcome to turn the local dump into a buffet if you so desire.
feebog
North San Fernando Valley (LA) here. Sky is gray with a mix of marine layer and haze. Posting this at 10:22 PDT and the sun has broken through as much as it is going to. Ugh.
MisterForkbeard
North Bay/CA here. Sky color is normal overcast. It was actually foggy this morning. Still smells a little like smoke outside at the moment.
My family up in OR is having a bad time. I have an Aunt who evacced from Estacada, and then had to evac again from their secondary location. Word is their house is still untouched, but it was close. exBIL also had to evac from another town but his apartment is okay. I also have family north of Sacramento that are in danger from the Bear fire.
Apparently, there are some local white dudes in Oregon and Estacada who’ve been going around the evacced houses and breaking in to steal stuff. Just horrible.
It’s a shitshow all around and some people just need to make it worse. :(
Kent
Portland now has the worst air quality in the world among major cities: https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2020/09/portland-now-has-the-worst-air-quality-in-the-world-due-to-oregon-and-washington-wildfires.html
There are parts of Oregon such as Salem and Eugene and Bend where it is even worse. Across the river from Portland here in Camas WA my phone tells me the AQI is a mere 325 so just “hazardous”
On the plus side, the reason we are getting so much smoke is that the wind had died down to basically zero. So at least the fires may not be spreading as much as earlier this week. So mixed blessing.
The forecast is that we will eventually start getting some onshore breezes over the weekend which will eventually blow the smoke back to the east. But it will take a couple days. Winds out of the west would also blow the fires back on themselves to land previously burned so that would also make containment easier.
Aziz, light!
Northern end of Clackamas County, Oregon. We are at Level 1 but it would take another major windstorm to bring the fire way up here in the city, which isn’t going to happen. Offshore winds this weekend and rain on Monday are expected to clear out the smoke. Today, the east side of Portland is seeing AQIs in the 400 to 500 range, aka “stay inside.” But we have it good compared to the rest of the Willamette Valley between Salem and Eugene.
The forests of the rainy west side of the Cascade Range had a 400+ year fire regime (major stand-replacing fires occurring only that often on average). But that was before climate change.
oatler.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/11/tech/qanon-oregon-fire-conspiracy-theory/
JaneE
Bishop here. Sky is gray-brown. AQI =134. We can barely see the outlines of the mountains. This morning before dawn the air smelled of smoke, but not any more.
Cacti
Misspoke. Average daily high here locally has been 83 for the month of September. Which is still about 10 degrees above normal. It got over 90 degrees twice this week, and up to 94 yesterday, which is pretty much unheard of for September.
Summer was especially hot and dry too.
CaseyL
Seattle: Smokier today than yesterday, but not as bad as a couple days ago. Cats are out on the big balcony, so i can’t close the door :(
Martin
Can’t complain here in OC. Guessing we have as little impact from fire as almost anyone on the west coast right now. There are no fires immediately nearby. There’s definitely smoke cover, but it’s not near ground level – mostly from the El Dorado fire, though the LA basin mostly just collects all of the nearby fires into a nice soup and then spreads it around. There’s enough to aggravate my allergies, and trigger my daughters asthma a bit, but it’s only a small annoyance so long as we stay inside with the air filters going.
I fear this is going to get much worse. I’m not optimistic we have enough manpower to fight these in their current size, so I fear that at best they can maybe knock them down a little before a high pressure system comes in and starts blowing, flaring them up again. At least the northern areas have some hope of rain, but the fires here in SoCal will need to be put down the hard way. We’re not likely to see rain until after the election.
raven
Anyone near Paradise? My friends we just about done rebuilding.
Kent
@Cacti: And the dense smoke is actually depressing the temperature in western WA and OR a few degrees from what it would actually be today with clear skies. So it’s even worse than you think.
Tulip
Oakland – East Bay here. Air quality is hazardous.. my eyes are itchy but my lungs seem to be okay (maybe it was all the smoking I did in college to try to lose weight). My roommate has a horse and a sick dog so she’s been outside a lot more, her lungs have been burning since we were on Mars a few days ago. I haven’t seen blue sky in I don’t know how long, fog and/or smoke is heavy in the air, which is a greyish/tan clinging low. Smells like you’re right next to a BBQ or a campfire… An acquaintance lost everything in one of the fires, how pathetic that I don’t even know which one. She lost her home and all her animals. What do you even say? I think the orange sky + the darkness is what got to me the most. Beyond anything else, where do we go from here? I guess it’s just another day in 2020.
West of the Rockies
@Martin:
Nah, they’re real fussy about people snacking on the debris. Rats and seagulls get the quality pickin’s.
WaterGirl
@raven: That broke my heart when I read yesterday that areas near Paradise that we skipped over in the last fire were burned down this time. I’m a little surprised that your friends had decided to rebuild, I hope they don’t lose their place again.
West of the Rockies
@raven:
I’m just down the hill in Chico. The south eastern area is under evacuation warning, but I think crews are on too of it. Fingers crossed.
WaterGirl
@Tulip: Losing your home is terrible and heartbreaking. But losing all your animals, I think that would be unbearable. I’m so sorry.
Kent
Anyone know how accurate the Apple Weather ap AQI numbers are?
If you pull up the weather for any city using the Apple weather ap and then scroll down to the bottom for that city you get an AQI number along with air visibility and UV index. I’m just wondering if these numbers are pulled from the best and most up to date databases or if there is something better to use.
Martin
@Haydnseek: Looks like Bobcat spread quite a bit toward Monrovia overnight. Surprised there aren’t more evacs.
Aziz, light!
Antifa terrorists, if you ask other local white dudes in those rural communities. These bedwetters hear the police say BLM on their scanners and imagine hordes of dusky hued people coming down from the city. BLM, of course, means the Bureau of Land Management, which administers hundreds of millions of acres of public rangeland and forest.
Tulip
@WaterGirl: To be clear, it wasn’t me, but someone I loosely know.
raven
@West of the Rockies: Thanks, Jim’s work at M&I was there for years before he retired.
Martin
@Kent: Almost positive thats NWS data. I think Purple is the only other dataset out there.
Kent
Cool. So no point in searching out other data if you have an iPhone with the weather ap. It’s right there. I expect there are equivalent weather aps on Android phones as well.
WhatsMyNym
Good news for Oregon; the wind has shifted westerly enough to blow the smoke all the way to the other side of the Olympics. Currently at 198 we’re almost in the Very Unhealthy range. Nowhere near as bad here as the smoke from the Canadian fires in 2018, but near the coast and SW Washington is much worse.
Hopefully the higher humidity from the coast will settle the fires down in Oregon.
Haydnseek
@Martin: I haven’t checked today, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some parts of town were ordered to evacuate. It had been divided into three zones. Most dangerous zone was the northern one, closest to the fire. They were under an evacuation warning, but no order as of last night. I’m in no danger where I am but Monrovia is an absolute gem of a town. I can only hope…..
Kent
Every rural redneck in Oregon knows what the BLM is, because nearly every spot of land where you go hunt is BLM land. I grew up in Oregon and was hunting on BLM land for as long as I can remember. If people are freaking out because they hear people talking about BLM in terms of wildlands fire response then they are not local rednecks. They are probably imported dipshits of some kind.
Scout211
Here on the western side of Calaveras County in NorCal, the sky is yellowish gray and you can see the smoke hanging around everywhere. The Weather channel says we are 152 AQI but AIRnow.gov says 226. The smoke typically gets worse in the afternoon but even right now you can barely see the hills around us that are less than a mile away and the foothills are invisible.
WaterGirl
@Tulip: I understood that, I was just thinking about how there just aren’t words for how awful that would be.
MisterForkbeard
@MisterForkbeard: AQI Note: It’s about 200-230 here in the north bay. Could be a lot worse, but we can go outside for short intervals. Helps to wear a mask, and we’ve got that covered. :)
KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))
My nephew is north of Willets, evacuated from the Oak fire on Tuesday and staying with friends. It’s 40% contained, now. His little farm is pretty hidden, but he notified the fire dept and they were able to save some: the trailer he lives in, his largest greenhouse, his water tank, one garden and one dry shed. He went to check on it yesterday and they were still working, a lot was still burning, (one garden all dug up, but it was one he didn’t plant this year, one ash) and fire hoses all through everything. It’s hard to see so much of a year’s work smoking ash but he’s very thankful.
My sister is west of Portland., so quite safe from fire – flames, at least. Smoke is another matter. We’re estranged – she and her husband are far right, Trump may be too liberal for them – but I try to keep in touch for this kind of thing. Her message was just that they were quite safe but they would pray for my nephew. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Roger Moore
SoCal, living in Pasadena, working in Duarte. We could see the Bobcat fire clearly from work yesterday, but now there’s too much smoke to see the mountains. I would estimate visibility at a few hundred yards. Earlier in the day the smoke was thick enough you could look directly at the sun without hurting your eyes. They’re listing the AQI in my area as 350, which is as bad as I can remember. The Bobcat fire is inching closer to Monrovia, but there are only voluntary evacuations so far.
RobertDSC-Work
El Segundo out by LAX here. The sky is beige and the sun is an unhealthy orange.
That said, last night was the first night in a long time that I have slept with the fan off.
I’ve had to wear a light jacket on the way in to work. Stay inside all day in my building, wear a mask at all times, something my colleagues don’t do. Maddening and infuriating.
SFBayAreaGal
@Geoduck: I was stationed at Ft Lewis from 76-78. Is the military being used to help fight the fires?
MisterForkbeard
@Aziz, light!: What’s sad is that my aunt recognized some of the dudes from their home security cameras. All local right-wingers.
My aunt is kind of a rare thing – she and her family (and community) are left-wing evangelicals who actually live their faith and are thoroughly disgusted with rightwing religion and politics, seeing it as a huge betrayal of Jesus’ ideals. I’m not religious, but people like her give me hope for Christianity in America.
It is both sad and thoroughly expected that the people breaking into houses and their local right-wing fanatics.
raven
@RobertDSC-Work: My sis lives right on the other side of Aviation
MisterForkbeard
@Aziz, light!: And to think, five years ago we almost moved from the Northern Bay Area to… Willamette Valley.
Honestly not sure which would have been worse for fires. Ugh.
Our second choice was to move to Colorado. I guess we just prefer firey states >_<
zzyzx
Just about 200 in northeast Seattle. Far worse than yesterday.
I went for a walk earlier and barely made it up the hill near my house.
namekarB
I saw that the fire was burning near and parts of where the Campfire burned last year. Folks evacuating and roads were jammed at the same choke points they were jammed at last year. We are doomed to never learn.
raven
@namekarB: I messaged them and not heard back. I doubt if they waited around this time.
WaterGirl
@raven: The pictures and the story of them leaving one car behind haunts me – they figured they weren’t going to make it and at least wanted to be together.
raven
@WaterGirl: It was awful and I know they are still suffering with it.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Martin: Most of the spread for the Bobcat fire has been to the north, it’s crossed Angeles Crest.
MisterForkbeard
@WaterGirl: That story still just amazes me. I can’t really picture being in that situation. Just can’t.
That it was even a possibility is a tragedy.
WhatsMyNym
@zzyzx: Yeah, much worse here today. At 198 (Port Townsend), it went up from 124 in about 2 hours. Port Angeles is at 282. It’s a very fine smoke, just looks like dirty fog.
I can hear boats using fog horns in the bay!
opiejeanne
@Kelly: Jebus! That’s terrible, waiting for an evacuation order from the place you took refuge after the one at your home.
I hope you don’t have to run for it again.
I missed your report in an earlier thread.
Scout211
@raven:
https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/wildfire/north-complex-wildfire-update/103-eb3a48ba-aadc-490a-aa91-bf5206e4e216
Here’s a pretty good local news story, with maps that might help.
SFBayAreaGal
North San Francisco Península. Foggy, gray with a tinge of yellow. Can’t see the coastal hills. Light smell of smoke in the air. Air quality is 171.
Winds from the west supposed to pick up this weekend.
Faithful Lurker
I’m in/on the Olympic Peninsula. Our sky is grey and the haze (from smoke, I think) is pretty thick. I can barely see across the valley to the next ridge. On a clear day we can see the Cascades on the other side of Seattle but not today or yesterday. Can’t smell the smoke like we could Tuesday but it’s there. We are supposed to get rain Mon. Keeping fingers crossed.
Llelldorin
@WaterGirl: For old-timers in Los Angeles, 452 would be a stage 3 smog alert.
Sister Golden Bear
SF Peninsula here. Sky is mostly a normal color for the marine (fog) layer again, but smokey and the air quality is terrible. Looks like it’s going to hang on all day yet again.
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl:
Yup. Like when a storm turns the sky that weird bluish-green.
sxjames
Beaverton (suburb west of Portland). Grey/orange sky, and yes – I’ve noticed it’s a few degree cooler than normal. According to Airnow.gov particulate index is at 288. Its bad enough I will be staying inside today.
Sister Golden Bear
@WaterGirl: @Llelldorin: I agree that it was the darkness was the most unsettling thing.
I’ve seen orange skies from fires before, but this was like a day-long eclipse, or one of those towns in Alaska where the sun in beyond the horizon in winter. All the streetlights were on, and I had to the turn the lights on inside the house so that I could see where I was going. It really threw off my body rhymes; at 6 p.m. I felt like I’d pulled an all nighter.
The other unsettling thing was that despite the orange skies that air quality was good and didn’t smell smokey because the marine (fog) layer kept the fire smoke above it. Which was a good thing, but the disconnect between what I was seeing vs. what I wasn’t smelling really added to the sense of strangeness.
Spanky
From a (former volunteer fireman) friend in Happy Camp, CA:
Geoduck
@SFBayAreaGal: There are no bad fires close by in SW Washington, so probably not. We’re getting the smoke from elsewhere.
Sister Golden Bear
@Kelly: Due to the way the PurpleAir sensors work, they over-report smoke-related level by 50-100%.
If you change the pulldown from “None” to “LRAPA,” it adjusts the reading to be pretty close to the more accurate, but less current, AQI readings from other sources.
Lokahi
At the NE Portland cat rescue/shelter I volunteer at, the felines are hanging in there with a couple of HEPA air filters and several fans brought in by volunteers. Despite that, they’re not happy, and I’ve already made two runs to the vet for cats in distress. It’s close to Mt. Tabor, and the air quality monitor near there is registering 319-330 all morning.
WaterGirl
@MisterForkbeard: Yep. Haunting.
WaterGirl
@Llelldorin: Wow. That says a lot about how awful the smog problem was. Yikes.
trollhattan
@Scout211:
Thanks, helpful article and map.
The Camp Fire legacy looms over this fire (which has been variously named Bear, West Zone and North Complex–very helpful guys) and the many resulting deaths are gutting. Lacking strong winds, Paradise, Concow and Magalia should be spared because there’s no fuel to bridge the gap from this fire, which is on the other (south) side of the Feather River. Oroville Reservoir is being encircled, which is spooky if you’ve ever seen how damn large that lake is. It has also driven far east in timber all the way to Highway 70.
FWIW the fire had been smouldering a long while before it blew up this week. Lack of manpower, due to the many other fires. How about we cancel an aircraft carrier and spend money on firefighting resources? We’re gonna need them.
WaterGirl
@Sister Golden Bear: Two layers of unsetting. Three if we add COVID. Four if we add the state of our democracy.
We’re #1! We’re #1!
WaterGirl
@Spanky: Thanks for sharing that. It’s a (horrible) glimpse into what so many people are experiencing.
JOHN MANCHESTER
@WaterGirl: Ah, but being a dog, he got distracted—by a couple of cats who’ve been coming out and taunting him on the walk.
WaterGirl
@JOHN MANCHESTER: That made me smile. “Squirrel!”
opiejeanne
We live east of Seattle in Woodinville, about 8 miles or less from Northgate in Seattle, if I could fly.
Air quality is 181, so we’re supposed to stay indoors Or 197, from another source.
The sky is yellow-gray so the light is very strange and hazy enough that trees next door look like it’s a foggy day, but it’s projected to be 10 degrees cooler than yesterday. A smoke plume blew in from somewhere to the east of us, or the northeast or southeast. The eastbound roads have been blocked the past couple of days because of the fires.
We are safe for now, we’ve never had a fire come through here in the last 100 years because it’s usually too wet, and the current fires are too distant to travel here.
West of the Cascades
SE Portland here – echoing the other local jackals that out air is horrendous right now, but the winds are shifting and the forecast is a light northwesterly wind by tomorrow and rain on Monday. Hunkered inside with the cats until then. I have friends an hour south of here (in Colton) who had to evacuate and had fires come within a mile of their house, and are still on pins and needles to see if it is spared. On the bright side, the air quality is likely to deter any Proud Boys riots over the weekend, so I guess that’s a silver lining.
raven
@Scout211: Thanks!
Mike J
The WANG is (or is that WAANG? WaANG?). They’re flying blackhawks with pink trim added for water drops.
Nora Lenderbee
San Jose (south SF Bay). Airnow AQI is 200. The light is pale yellow, but not far off normal. Air smells pretty bad, and I have that dusty/ashy feeling in my mouth that means there is smoke. We’re not leaving the house today and probably not tomorrow. The forecast is for improvement.
@Sister Golden Bear: This is a really good description of how it felt. In addition, it got darker and darker as the day went on. And the coolness, coming just a few days after 105 degrees, was also disturbing.
We’d planned our annual hiking trip to the Sierra for the week of 9/20. Well. Still hoping that things will be better in October, but I’m not counting on it. These trips are precious to me and I’m really sad about missing a season.
Eljai
@Sister Golden Bear: Most unsettling! I’m 10 miles north of San Francisco. Since the air aloft cooled on Thursday, the smoke has come down so now we have a mixture of cold, fog and unhealthy air quality. Usually, I can count on the fog to help improve the air.
RobertDSC-Work
@raven:
I know it. Travel on Aviation every other day.
RM
Monterey Bay area. Sky is completely grey, but yesterday it was orange and not much light was getting in. AirNow keeps vacillating between Unhealthy and Unhealthy For Sensitive Groups. I woke up feeling super gross with a horrible aftertaste in my mouth, but then I found an open window in my spouse’s home office that had been left open overnight and I’ve gradually been feeling better since we closed it.
Super low visibility, though. You can’t see a block away through the smog.
Was contemplating going back to work this weekend after staying away to self quarantine all summer but I don’t think so. Not when I lack a car and have to bike/go on foot through this smog. Honestly, with the extra $300 covid unemployment bonus they just gave us, I’ll be making more self quarantining than I would working retail these next couple weeks—and I’ll be safer too. (Sorry, but I’m the kind of selfish person who doesn’t want to get sick just so other people can shop.)
Sister Golden Bear
I realized that one reason I’m feeling really off today, is the smoke is reminding me of visiting the Twin Towers ruins three weeks after 9/11 (was sent to NYC on business). I’ll spare you the other details of my 9/11 experience on the day itself.
Sebastian
Serious question:
Tons of rumors and CT out there on FB but do we have any indication what the causes are. Can we rule out enemy action?
In Former Yugoslavia, in the months before and then in the first half of the Civil War, the forests in Dalmatia (Croatia) were ablaze all the time everywhere. Now, it is like California a region in which fires are common but it was WAY out of the ordinary. However, in the second half when irregular and paramilitary forces were driven from the area and, more importantly, tight frontlines were established, wildfire frequency dropped dramatically.
I am really not putting it past Trump, militias, or even Russians to set fires and create chaos and distraction. The level of disinformation is insane but I’ve seen reporting from KOIN (ABC affiliate in OR) about arson but I cannot gauge if it’s credible or not.
Anyone have any info or insights?
Bumper
We live in Grays Harbor County near the coast. It’s been hazy and overcast with a slight ashy smell for a couple of days. This morning was significantly cooler (58 degrees) and the air felt a little damp but as the sun rose it was easier to tell it was more smoke than fog. I’ve driven to Olympia and the sky is hazy with a stronger smoky smell.
opiejeanne
@Sebastian: Massive number of lightning strikes in California. Massive number, over at least 2 days. The one in Yucaipa was caused by idiots with fireworks at a gender-reveal party.
In Washington, I haven’t heard the causes of so many fires that all started on September 7. Not all of our fires started then, but a number larger than 3. I don’t think we’ve had a lightning storm like California had.
Sebastian
@opiejeanne:
Damn, I didn’t know that. Do you by any chance have links? I would assume that was in NorCal and Southern Oregon then.
EDIT:
found one
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lightning-siege-hits-california-with-nearly-12000-strikes-in-a-week-2020-08-22/
mother of god
Frosty Fred
Here in Davis it’s smoky and overcast, I haven’t seen the coast range in days, although it’s been worse than it is right now. AQI pretty consistently unhealthy, although temps are down, as seen elsewhere.
My “inseparable” cat sisters that I adopted in February have been fighting all morning, and are now facing off at one another across the room, growling occasionally. No idea what’s brought that on.
Waiting on vets for one of my old mares, she’s been unthrifty all summer but has gone into a sudden decline. I have to wonder if the air has something to do with it.
Jinchi
One perk of the eerie skies is that the wildlife shows up in unexpected places and uncharacteristically close to people. We just had a red tail hawk perched prominently in the tree behind our yard, and the hummingbirds have been sitting unusually low in the bushes close to our windows. I expect they get closer because their instinctive fear of people is suddenly not their top of their concerns. It reminds me of their reaction during the solar eclipse.
Annie
San Francisco, outer Richmond district here, out by the ocean. Air quality is 228, very unhealthy. My living room windows face south and it looks like really thick fog out there. I’ve been coughing a lot. My two cats seem to be OK. I haven’t opened any windows but of course any air inside came in from outside so I don’t know how much that helps.
and yet — compared to people in the fire zones, I’m actually fortunate.
Aleta
@Jinchi: Also light change can disorient perception of location in space. Fwiw light also affects their migration decisions / patterns.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
San Francisco – yellow overcast is lightening to washed-out sun now, but the AQ (per PurpleAir) is well over 250 everywhere in the City and even higher in the surrounding areas. There’s a steady drizzle of fine ash – our cars, yard, tomatoes, everything is covered in it. I kept zooming out on PurpleAir to see how far I’d have to drive to find something under 100: Solvang, 5 hours away. It’s tempting, but the Kia won’t make it that far on one charge.
Jinchi
Add to that the high temperatures and dry vegetation that week. We had 105 degrees on the ground the day before the lightning hit. There were several powerful strikes within 2 miles of our house that woke us around 5 am and saw quite a few more in the distance. There was virtually no rain. Most of the major fires in CA were triggered then.
Now we’re getting smoke blowing down from Oregon. Predicted highs were supposed to be in the mid-90s, but with all the smoke cover we’ve been about 20-30 degrees cooler.
opiejeanne
The photo at the top of this page shows what it looks like just east of Seattle, the air quality at our neighborhood just it 221, and the air is visibly hazy between my front door and the road.
What to know today
edited by watergirl to hide the link that was breaking the formatting
Sister Golden Bear
@Sebastian: To elaborate on what @Jinchi said, more specifically it was dry lightning storms, i.e. no rain.
Plus in addition to the heat wave and dried out vegetation, California has a nasty bark beetle invasion that’s been killing trees for a decade. Before the Creek Fire, I drove through part what’s now before and there were large stands of dead trees, which were essentially kindling.
Finally, we’re so short of firefighters that fires that might have been contained normally got out of control. A fire chief on the Big Creek Fire said they had only a third as many firefighters as they’d normally had. I believe one of the fires that’s threatening the Paradise area had been burning for several days as a small, smoldering fire (which are pretty normal for lightning fires in the Sierras) that didn’t get a lot of firefighter attention because there were so many other higher priority fires.
Jay
Vancouver BC , air quality health advisory is at 10, and while a couple of days ago, Metrotown became invisible in the smoke, today, all the skyrises except the ones with in 4 blocks of me, have become invisible.
Running the air purifier in the apartment.
JustRuss
Corvallis here. Sky is smokey, but not as dark as yesterday or Wednesday. Still nasty to breath. My daughter is in Lebanon at the base of the Cascades, may need to evacuate to my place. With some friends. Could make for a very crowded little house.
Scout211
At least one of the big fires in Oregon (Beachie Creek/Santiam Fire) was caused by downed power lines during the wind storm. My guess is that Oregon power companies will be initiating Public Safety Power Shutoffs in the future, like we have in California.
https://www.opb.org/article/2020/09/10/fire-officials-say-downed-power-lines-played-role-in-santiam-fire/
raven
I heard from my Paradise friends, they are OK and on their toes.
WaterGirl
@raven: oh, good. what a relief.
Mj_Oregon
Gov. Brown stated at the beginning of her fires update today that the OSP has reports of “dozens” of missing people from the areas of the fires, mostly from Jackson, Lane, and Marion counties.
The fire that started north of Ashland is under investigation for possible arson. It started at a BMX park where one person was found dead. The towns of Phoenix and Talent, home to many Hispanic families, are decimated. There’s a story about them in WaPo that’s heartbreaking.
Up in my area the air quality is better, currently at 255, down from a high of 456 yesterday. The sky is lighter but we still have a brown “fog.” We have more firefighters on the lines today and I’ve heard that some areas are getting water drops. However, the level 1 evacuation area nearest to me was expanded west to I-5 this morning. I’m unsure why that is as I couldn’t find any indication that the fire was moving in that direction.
On a positive note, somehow the iconic Goodpasture covered bridge was spared destruction Monday night during the initial firestorm up the Mackenzie river. Also we may get relief from the smoke by Sunday, a day earlier than predicted yesterday. Rain is forecast too. I may go out and dance in it when it comes.
Lefthanded compliment
Western Nevada County here, near Grass Valley/Nevada City. The air looks better today, with some filtered sun shining through, but smells and tastes worse than yesterday. Still, nothing like Tuesday afternoon, when a low, very dark smoke cloud from the Bear Fire blotted out the sun; I couldn’t help but think of Mordor and Mt. Doom. In relative terms, “not apocalyptic” is a good thing.
sacrablue
The closest air quality monitor to my house about 1.5 miles away (West Roseville, CA) just reported a reading of 306. Even my cats are smart enough to stay inside today.
Oops, now it is up to 317.
trollhattan
@sacrablue:
Dayumn, that stinks. Come downtown, it’s only {checks} 170?
sacrablue
@trollhattan: Now at 322 and my eyes are burning, no windows open, air conditioning off. It looks like this air is moving toward you.
Gemina13
Here in Tacoma, the smoke is hanging low over the treetops. A Wildfire Smoke Update has been issued for Pierce County:
Scout211
Of interest to Californians today:
https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/wildfire/north-complex-wildfire-update/103-eb3a48ba-aadc-490a-aa91-bf5206e4e216
HumboldtBlue
@Scout211:
That’s good news.
Air quality here on the coast remains dreadful. Heavy ash smoky air.
WaterGirl
@Scout211: That’s really great news!
Villago Delenda Est
In Tracktown and environs, we’re all seriously smoked in, but no additional “get the eff out of there right effing now” orders have come down in the last couple of days. Red disc where the Sun is supposed to be right now. Very light if any ashfall, unlike Tuesday.
rosalind
Niece #1 & Bro and Sister-In-Law finally allowed back in fm Santa Cruz fires. Homes Ok. whew.
Niece #2 allowed back in fm Healdsburg fire. Home ok for now. whew.
Niece #3 mad evac fm Medford fire, now back in. Ok for now, but on the danger line & packed to re-go
Online buddy: Cabin currently OK (she thinks) in CA/OR border fire. Still very much in danger
Me: smoke fm CA/OR/WA fires have joined up and drifted north, descending on my town for next few days. Practicing not breathing.
Dan B
South Seattle here. The smoke seems to be clearing. This AM we could see less than 1/2 mile. Now we can see 4 miles but everything visible is medium gray at that distance.
We had really strong winds out of the north several days ago that caused a big power outage because of a surge that fried our fridge. It was the same system that downed powerlines in Santiam Canyon and probably was strong even further south.
The fridge was full of Covid second phase food so I’ve cooked a hen, two ponds of ground lamb, four pounds of ground chicken, and lots of other frozen and refrigerated items. We are tired of a steady meat heavy menu. But five hundred dollars later the fridge is working.
Ten years ago our furnace was turning into a malevolent killer. Apparently when the heat exchanger rusts through it fills the house with carbon monoxide – whee! We installed ductless heat pumps. They are more expensive but eliminate our carbon pollution. We figured we’d use the AC for the one day per year over 90. It, and months of air sealing, have enabled us to keep the smoke out. We stimulated the economy and moved towards the solution of the climate crisis that seems to be in full swing.
Dan B
@rosalind: Great news except the not breathing.
Feeling a bit guilty we have a smoke free house for just two of us. (And two kittehs, who love being outside with all the toys / bugs.)
WaterGirl
@rosalind: Yikes. That’s a lot of people to worry about.
WaterGirl
@Dan B: Good for you guys! Who says no good deed goes unpunished? Finally rewarded for doing a good thing.
HumboldtBlue
We’ve now got two evacuation centers established in the county.
Poor Oregon, it’s bad up there and the local Salmon Complex fire will burn until the rains.
rosalind
@WaterGirl: i swear to god, at this rate…watch out Reno, you’re next!! (Niece #4).
and our firefighters – professional and volunteers – need to be paid so much more. they have saved my families’ homes. they are saving many more families and businesses and towns. bless them all. pay them all.
rosalind
@Dan B: the north winds were something. then i awoke 6am today to a wicked southerly and immediate smoke in the air. mother nature rules us all.
WaterGirl
@rosalind: At this rate, families are going to have to stagger, what, 3-5 hours apart, across the country, so there is always someone you can get to when you have to evacuate again. And again. And again.
Surely there will always be a family member not experiencing a fire, an earthquake, a tornado, a hurricane, a windstorm.
OR Soder
@Sebastian:
I hadn’t heard about the bmx arsonist. I did see on KOIN that a methhead was arrested for starting one. Mostly though the FBI and sheriff departments have been trying to tamp down the rumors that Antifa was starting fires or any arsonists for that matter. Seems the high winds knocking down power lines, and careless bbq’ers are getting most of the blame. Add to that the drought, low humidity and wind coming from the wrong direction and I guess a failure to clean our floors.