2020 Wildfires in Oregon and California

[activeStick]

Didn't see a thread for this but it's getting worse down south and smoke is starting to travel up to Metro Vancouver now. Very smoky here and the smell is noticeable now. I started noticing it in the city yesterday but today has been much worse.

Are you folks getting smoke in Calgary?

https://twitter.com/user/status/1304366577962422273

https://twitter.com/user/status/1304612598151692288

[Zevo]

I was surprised at how bad it was at 7 pm when I got off work(Vancouver Island) as there was nothing this morning. Just one more thing to worry about.

[FlamesAddiction]

Yeah, lots of smoke here in the Lower Mainland. I work on the southside of Berrard Inlet in Port Moody and I could barely see the outline of the North Shore mountains from my window today. My eyes were stinging as well.

I can't imagine how it must be further south down the coast. I think the mountains mostly trap it on this side, but I could be wrong.

[accord1999]

You can see its effect on sunsets but air quality remains good:


https://weather.gc.ca/airquality/pages/abaq-002_e.html

[gallione11]

Air quality is and has been extremely bad for the last three days or so. We had a historic wind storm on Monday/Tuesday with gusts up to 60-70 mph. That, combined with dry forests and some already burning fires were a recipe for disaster. As an example, the Beachie Creek Fire which started Aug 16th or so was about 450 acres on the 7th. It grew to 131,000 acres during the windstorm.

Thankfully, I'm in the NW part of the Portland Metro area so I haven't been affected by the Riverside fire burning into the SE metro area, but my GF's mom is right on the edge of the stage 2 evacuation alert. Though, crews have been able to slow forward progress on that fire and the winds have died down so she should be safe. This really bad air quality for us is supposed to last until at least Monday, but I'm betting it will be a few weeks before we get down to green levels. Some of the smoke has traveled 1500 miles into the Pacific so far.

Current AQ map:

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by activeStick

Didn't see a thread for this but it's getting worse down south and smoke is starting to travel up to Metro Vancouver now. Very smoky here and the smell is noticeable now. I started noticing it in the city yesterday but today has been much worse.

Are you folks getting smoke in Calgary?

Forecast is calling for smoke to move in over the next few days as a low pressure system moves onshore and brings smoke up from the south. Nothing yet however (from the US fires)

[bc-chris]

earlier this week was pretty gross in kelowna. friday wasn't too bad but more smoke has rolled in over night - not as bad as earlier in the week, but you can definitely smell it.


this is a good webpage that shows/forecasts smoke movement... http://firesmoke.ca/forecasts/current/

[activeStick]

Metro Vancouver briefly topped the list of worst air quality in the world but as of right now, dropped to second behind Portland.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7331141/v...r-air-quality/

Currently, 5 of the 6 places in the world with the poorest air quality are in North America due to the wildfires.

https://www.iqair.com/ca/world-air-quality-ranking

[DoubleK]

The terrain is so rough where those fires are they can't really fight them.

Been pretty much constant red flag warnings for the past week. PG&E turned the power off to a large portion of the Bay area on Monday.

At this point it's pretty much protect as many houses as they can and pray for better weather.

[dammage79]

Thick blanket of smoke today in Victoria. Worse than yesterday. So thick I can look at the sun. It's just a glowing dull orange disk today.

And the smell is as twice as strong today as yesterday.

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by dammage79

Thick blanket of smoke today in Victoria. Worse than yesterday. So thick I can look at the sun. It's just a glowing dull orange disk today.

And the smell is as twice as strong today as yesterday.

Yep, this is a picture I took of my backyard

[afc wimbledon]

my friends smoke alarm woke him up this morning, they'd left a window open and it was triggered by, well being in Vancouver....

[dammage79]

Originally Posted by kermitology

Yep, this is a picture I took of my backyard

It was supposed to clear off today. Cant imagine thats going to happen now.

[JohnnyB]

Yep, Vancouver's air today would even be considered a really bad air day in Shanghai. The smell is strong stepping outside from filtered indoor air.

Lots of people still doing sports outside today though, which is not a good idea for their lungs.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

Yep, Vancouver's air today would even be considered a really bad air day in Shanghai. The smell is strong stepping outside from filtered indoor air.

Lots of people still doing sports outside today though, which is not a good idea for their lungs.

I did a 40k bike ride yesterday and feel like I am smoking 3 packs a day again!!

[Lanny_McDonald]

We’re blanketed in smoke here in AZ today. These fires are wreaking havoc all over the west.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

I did a 40k bike ride yesterday and feel like I am smoking 3 packs a day again!!

Yeah, that's the thing I found over years of dealing with high pm2.5 in Shanghai, that it often doesn't bother you that much at the time you're out and active in it but you really feel it later on in the day or for the next several days. I just don't mess around with outdoor exercise in this sort of air anymore unless I've got an N95 mask on.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by dammage79

Thick blanket of smoke today in Victoria. Worse than yesterday. So thick I can look at the sun. It's just a glowing dull orange disk today.

And the smell is as twice as strong today as yesterday.

Don't do that.

It’s the ultraviolet light that causes eye damage, and here’s the fun part: said ultraviolet light doesn’t give a #### if it’s cloudy, smoky, fire-filled, or whatever. Looking directly at the sun, even if your eyes can tolerate the brightness, is a bad idea.

https://vitals.lifehacker.com/seriou...ver-1845003036

[skudr248]

It was really bad here yesterday in van, had all my windows open and woke up feeling weird thought it was the hangover but definitely the air. Closed the windows and had the air purifier going, what a difference

[JohnnyB]

Looking around at AQI values around other parts of southern BC, Washington and Oregon is shocking. Castlegar is in the high 400s, quite a few places in Washington and Oregon in the 500s and even some places up in the 900s. These are horrendous. I'm guessing also that most people don't have home air purifiers for this. Awful.