To all of our friends on the east coast getting smoked out - sorry

Eric

Eric

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I'm in California less than two hours from all these burning fires that are sending all this smoke to NY and the east coast and for a change we're not getting any of it. We had it for months last year and it was flat out suffocating, looking on the news it's surprising how much has made it across the country.
 
We saw it here today while boating in NH. My wife said “It’s not usually that hazy right?” I responded “Humidity babe.”
A few hours later our friend who was on the boat with us sent this.

www.wmur.com

Western wildfire smoke adding haze to air over New Hampshire

Notice a certain haze to the air in New Hampshire on Tuesday?
www.wmur.com www.wmur.com

Sounds like it’s harmless for now. Good luck out there.
 
Edd said:
We saw it here today while boating in NH. My wife said “It’s not usually that hazy right?” I responded “Humidity babe.”
A few hours later our friend who was on the boat with us sent this.
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The presence of high humidity atop the summer heat is one departure from typical west coast smoke. The combination of all three makes bad air even worse, especially when exercising.
 
Edd said:
We saw it here today while boating in NH. My wife said “It’s not usually that hazy right?” I responded “Humidity babe.”
A few hours later our friend who was on the boat with us sent this.

www.wmur.com

Western wildfire smoke adding haze to air over New Hampshire

Notice a certain haze to the air in New Hampshire on Tuesday?
www.wmur.com www.wmur.com

Sounds like it’s harmless for now. Good luck out there.
Click to expand...

Well... for a lot of upstate NY they put up air quality warnings today and attributed them to the Canadian wildfires. Those warnings are a rarity for some of us for sure.

wea - air quality alerts from canadian fires.jpg


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lizkat said:
Well... for a lot of upstate NY they put up air quality warnings today and attributed them to the Canadian wildfires. Those warnings are a rarity for some of us for sure.
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I’ve left this fire map open for the last few days to monitor airborne PM2.5 smoke particulates, and it appears much of the east coast smoke is originating from fires in the northwestern Ontario and eastern Manitoba — as opposed to the fire complexes in B.C., Alberta and the western U.S.

1626835929113.png
 
B S Magnet said:
I’ve left this fire map open for the last few days to monitor airborne PM2.5 smoke particulates, and it appears much of the east coast smoke is originating from fires in the northwestern Ontario and eastern Manitoba — as opposed to the fire complexes in B.C., Alberta and the western U.S.

View attachment 7287
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Ah so that’s why it’s been kind of hazy looking here lately. I thought it was just the humidity, but it’s slightly different than normal humidity haze.
 
Runs For Fun said:
Ah so that’s why it’s been kind of hazy looking here lately. I thought it was just the humidity, but it’s slightly different than normal humidity haze.
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Yah, no, this one has been quite different than that bluish haze of airborne ozone common in late summertime air.

The first tell was when the intensity (contrast) of shadows dropped like a rock beginning on early Monday, and the second tell was when the high sunlight hitting the ground was decidedly yellow-orange instead of near-white: airborne particulates and unburnt volatiles from wild fires block the shorter-wavelength sunlight from reaching the ground, letting through just the redder part of the spectrum.

What we’ve been seeing lately is reminiscent of when I lived on the west coast during peak fire season, or decades ago when both vehicular and industrial volatile particulates were airborne in places like Houston on any given day when the wind blew just right from the direction of the petrochemical complexes along the Ship Channel. I shot a photo from, I think, April 1990, on one of those afternoons where the mid-afternoon sun was deep orange.

During a high ozone event, there will be a lot of airborne haze, but it’s the shorter wavelengths which get diffracted by that ozone — giving it that bluish tint, and sunlight hitting the ground won’t skew toward the yellow/orange end of the visible spectrum.

The third tell — at least for me — is my throat Monday began to feel phlegm was trying to mask irritation.
 
B S Magnet said:
or decades ago when both vehicular and industrial volatile particulates were airborne
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Heh, first time I flew from San Francisco down to LA back in the 60s it was alarming to see this big brown bowl below us as the plane descended, and to realize that in a few minutes we'd deplane and be breathing that stuff. I'l never forget that.
 
I remember last year when we had a fire just down the hill from us, thinking, oh great, the virus will be that much more transmissible in this heavily smoky air.
 
It's been positively pleasant here in the Bay Area this summer. The smoke has all been blowing east. Of course, last year in September the sky turned orange and we had the worst air quality in the world for a week. I won't be surprised if that happens again this year.
 
TBL said:
It's been positively pleasant here in the Bay Area this summer. The smoke has all been blowing east. Of course, last year in September the sky turned orange and we had the worst air quality in the world for a week. I won't be surprised if that happens again this year.
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Yeah it was brutal for the state last year. We've been lucky so far this year but if that wind shifts to the west we're all screwed.
 
Eric said:
Yeah it was brutal for the state last year. We've been lucky so far this year but if that wind shifts to the west we're all screwed.
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The Santa Anas this year I fear will be exceptionally brutal for the West Coast. I only hope I’m wrong. :(
 
In 2020, 4 million acres burned in California, beating the previous record (2018) by far. That was anomalous, as most of the fires had been started by a rare lightning event caused by the remnants of a tropical storm that originated off the coast of Mexico and moved north. The likelihood of another lightning event like that is slim, but even without one we could see another million acres burn in California alone (and perhaps similar in Oregon). Even areas that have burned recently are at risk of burning again.
 
And the wind has shifted to the west, it was crystal clear this morning and in the last hour the sky has turned brown. So I guess it's our turn, hopefully this will give those to the east a break.
 
We didn't get too much of it all the way across the continent, down here in Georgia. It was hazy all day yesterday, and fairly thick off in the distance when I woke up this morning, nothing too dramatic.
 
Looks like New England is getting hammered by the smoke as well, if it's any consolation local winds have shifted and we're getting it in the Central Valley in CA as well now.
 
Eric said:
Looks like New England is getting hammered by the smoke as well, if it's any consolation local winds have shifted and we're getting it in the Central Valley in CA as well now.
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It's only been advisory-level on air quality here from that for two days total... but at the expense of a whole lotta rain we really didn't need here. On balance I'll take the rain though. I feel so badly for everyone having to deal with the wildfires themselves OR the smoke that has got caught in some of these weather domes this summer.
 
Eric said:
Looks like New England is getting hammered
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I remember a time 'bout a century back when the Oklahoma panhandle ended up all over DC, NY and Boston.

Ok, I do not actually remember it. But it happened. And I read about it. Looks like the east coast is just a dumping ground for western US screwups. Better get out there and start rakin'.
 
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