West coast fires

[Ronstar]

I've never checked AQI before. It's 78. The dominant pollutant is PM2.5. Temp is now 79.5, Humidity 56% (unusually low), Wind 3 mph SW. Elevation 556' MSL


ETA - checked a couple more AQI sites. One says 17. the other 35.

 

[timo2]

The satellite is pretty good, the air here is back to brown again. Yesterday it looked like Hell. Seriously. I was waiting for flying bat winged horned demons to descend from the sky.

Decorate your drone in that manner and freak out your neighbors!!

 

[Janet H]

Day number 5 of hazardous air at my house and I feel poisoned. Headache, irritable, runny nose, red eyes, etc. Visibility is severely reduced. I can't see my mail box, 300 feet down the driveway. Still, my personal discomfort pales next to those who have been burned out.

 

[skipro33]

Climate change still being questioned....

The science shows there is a change in the climate. The jury is still out as to whether it's man-made or natural. There is science that shows the earth cools and heats cyclically. I remember many years ago the news reporting we are soon to see another ice age.

As an ecosystem, I think that the earth has great capacity to keep things in balance for her. Maybe not so much for the current apex lifeforms. That's where evolution comes into play.

Anyways, air quality; Here's a link to my home weather station. It includes both indoor and outdoor air quality meters. Also, if you go to the map at the top of the page, zoom out, scroll to your neck of the woods, zoom in and click on any of the nearby weather stations where you live, you might see weather readings specific to your home.

P.S. Give it some time to load. The cloud server is a little slow reacting today. There's a call in to report it....


https://ambientweather.net/dashboard/d41e59457cf8c97c542f81bbf590aaff

 

[Ronstar]

The science shows there is a change in the climate. The jury is still out as to whether it's man-made or natural. There is science that shows the earth cools and heats cyclically. I remember many years ago the news reporting we are soon to see another ice age.....

There has always been climate change. Even before man.

 

[W2R]

Day number 5 of hazardous air at my house and I feel poisoned. Headache, irritable, runny nose, red eyes, etc. Visibility is severely reduced. I can't see my mail box, 300 feet down the driveway. Still, my personal discomfort pales next to those who have been burned out.

Janet, my DD lives in Beaverton, Oregon. Multnomah County cautioned residents to stay inside, even if they have no health conditions. The air is so bad! She had to go to a doctor appointment, and she has lung issues so she wore a respirator sort of like this one I think. Anyway it made her look like a Martian. I didn't ask her how well it worked, but I suspect not very well. She says the air is awful, and like you she is really suffering from it. My heart goes out to you and to all who have directly or indirectly suffered from these terrible fires!

 

[skipro33]

If you can get above 4000-5000 feet, the air is fine. Anybody for bagging a peak today?

If you be in California, all National Forests are closed. I imagine, although I don't know for sure, all public lands including state wild lands are also closed. Cal FIRE I think doesn't want to risk someone else giving a gender reveal party again....
Or even a popcorn fart for that matter. Anything that causes enough friction to create a little heat. Ha!

 

[RobbieB]

There has always been climate change. Even before man.

Yeah, like when those big asteroids hit! Makes our CO2 problem look tiny.

 

[Janet H]

Janet, my DD lives in Beaverton, Oregon. Multnomah County cautioned residents to stay inside, even if they have no health conditions. The air is so bad! She had to go to a doctor appointment, and she has lung issues so she wore a respirator sort of like this one I think. Anyway it made her look like a Martian. I didn't ask her how well it worked, but I suspect not very well. She says the air is awful, and like you she is really suffering from it. My heart goes out to you and to all who have directly or indirectly suffered from these terrible fires!

We've had the fan running non-stop on the air handler (heating system) as it does some filtering and has an electrostatic precipitator - it helps. Yesterday I went to the grocery store wearing my usual cloth covid mask with a PM2 filter added. When I got home and took it off (about 35 minutes round trip), it was dingy dark gray. It looked like a used up air filter on a car. Can't imagine what this does to lungs but the local ER's and clinics are packed with folks with respiratory and heart conditions that are exacerbated by foul air.

and.. random strangeness: The local pot store is advertising water pipes for use as filtration

 

[rather be in hawaii]

It's really bad here in Seattle through at least the end of the week. The AQI was off the charts one day, 500+. I could barely see across the street. It smells like smoke outside. I found some HEPA grade furnace filters that fit perfectly in one of our windows. With twin fans inside, all the air coming in goes through the filter. It really helps. A couple of years ago, it was raining ash. Last year, there were few wildfires polluting the air here, so no smoke problems. This year it's awful.

 

[Aerides]

There has always been climate change. Even before man.

However... climate change has always been a contentious topic here on ER.org, with clear political overtones. So let's please everyone knock it off to allow the thread to continue.

 

[MuirWannabe]

However... climate change has always been a contentious topic here on ER.org, with clear political overtones. So let's please everyone knock it off to allow the thread to continue.

Thanks, and amen.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Forest Service just announced an extension of the closure of all California national forests thru September 21st. Likely to extend much longer as they continue to evaluate the situation.

 

[Miarocks]

I personally know at least 2 families that have lost their homes in Phoenix/Talent OR. (One of which is a SIL and her daughter). They’ve lost everything. No area is immune. We even have wildfires that spread across the deserts of AZ and CA. Let this serve as a reminder to have ‘Go Bags’ at the ready (and one for each car). You just never know. Digitize important docs to cloud storage. Assume you’ll be away from home when it happens and act accordingly... often you can’t get in past evac lines to retrieve things anyway, or roads may be blocked. Prayers for the safety of all, and gratitude for the firefighters and community and Govt programs that are trying to help these folks. Just heartbreaking. ��

 

[RobbieB]

It's much better here today, now 99 (or yellow) on the color chart. The map shows a nice "delta breeze" effect which I hope will continue.

 

[timo2]

However... climate change has always been a contentious topic here on ER.org, with clear political overtones. So let's please everyone knock it off to allow the thread to continue.

OK, my apologies.

 

[Hyper]

Yrs ago we owned 10 acres in a pristine remote area of the mountains in another state, not ca. FS and BLM land borders on all sides of a very large sub-division our land was in. When we bought the land, the BLM and FS were doing fire mitigations actually making a point to stop and talk to the land owners. This area was rated the worst in our state for fire risk. One sub-division covenant was no trees allowed to be cut down bigger than 3"! The land was over grown and so THICK that you could barely walk through it. Myself and a cpl others ignored the covenants and did fire mitigation on our property. We sold that property a year prior to one very bad fire 10's of thousands of acres burned all around, including homes. That fire burnt right up to our previously owned 10acres on all sides but did not go further. Fire mitigation works, period. Stock grazing works, period. If we don't manage the land, mother nature is going to do it for us! I've been cutting wood much of this summer. For fire wood and then they opened up the green pole permits to mitigate the forest quicker because it was shut down for 20 yrs. It's a very good deal for the forest and us as we'll have a good buck & pole fence in the future.

 

[Retch The Grate]

The air cleared in SF today, I've been able to open up all the windows and let the place air out for the first time in a week. It's been so bad outside that the air purifiers inside have had a hard time keeping the air at a healthy level, lots of kicking into high mode on bad air, and that's when we had everything closed up tight. Glad to be letting the breeze blow through now, and the dog appreciated the first walk in several days.

 

[samgoth]

Myself and a cpl others ignored the covenants and did fire mitigation on our property. We sold that property a year prior to one very bad fire 10's of thousands of acres burned all around, including homes. That fire burnt right up to our previously owned 10acres on all sides but did not go further. Fire mitigation works, period. Stock grazing works, period. If we don't manage the land, mother nature is going to do it for us! I've been cutting wood much of this summer. For fire wood and then they opened up the green pole permits to mitigate the forest quicker because it was shut down for 20 yrs. It's a very good deal for the forest and us as we'll have a good buck & pole fence in the future.

I agree, control/prescribed burns and other proactive approaches need to be taken for short to medium term gain. Longer term planning involving risk shifting those who benefit from the fire prone lands will take time and political will. Like you said, if we don't do it, mother nature will do it for us (and is!)

 

[W2R]

The air cleared in SF today, I've been able to open up all the windows and let the place air out for the first time in a week. It's been so bad outside that the air purifiers inside have had a hard time keeping the air at a healthy level, lots of kicking into high mode on bad air, and that's when we had everything closed up tight. Glad to be letting the breeze blow through now, and the dog appreciated the first walk in several days.

Wonderful! I am so glad to read this.

 

[RobbieB]

The air cleared in SF today, I've been able to open up all the windows and let the place air out for the first time in a week.

Yes! C'mon Delta Breeze!

 

[Rosedala]

Hmmm. Political unrest and so forth, Covid 19, fires: What's next? An earthquake?

Nature is angry at humans for harming human animals and even MORE harming non-human animals.

 

[aja8888]

Nature is angry at humans for harming human animals and even MORE harming non-human animals.

I'm sure nature is killing many of the non-human animals with the fires.

 

[RobLJ]

AQI of 185 today; 180 yesterday; in the 180s tomorrow.
It's supposed to drop down to only the "unhealthy for sensitive" Thursday, so I guess we get a break. I can barely see the outline of the mountains 2.5 miles in back of the house for the last week.

I hope the cold front expected Friday will help control the fires, although the winds in front of the front are very dangerous.

 

[dixter]

does it make you mad that a few arsonist started the fires in the first place... sure there are weather related lightning strikes to blame too... but most of the fires were started on purpose and nature with the dry spells and winds took care of the rest... the arsonist took advantage of the existing conditions and nature went on a hay ride.... don't blame all of this on climate changes..... it took humans to take advantage of the situation....

 

[rodi]

(Mod hat on)

Climate change is a subject that has a history of devolving into partisan bickering here on the e-r forums.

Raw partisan politics is even more unwelcome.

Please refrain from discussing climate change or partisan issues or risk having your posts removed and/or your permissions restricted.

This has already been stated in this thread by another mod.

(Mod hat off)