Many of you might have heard of the raging forest fires in the Pacific Northwest, particularly in British Columbia that has well over a million acres burned already from over 900 fires so far this summer. Ocean Diver showed a similar photo a few days back from her perch out in the San Juan Islands, Salish Sea.
Around the first of August, with warming temperatures to the south in Washington and Oregon states the rising warm air ushered in the smoke laden air from British Columbia to fill the space.
In addition we have our own forest fires in eastern Washington State sending smoke south and west into Oregon. These fires choked large parts of the northwest. In fact, the NWS shows that the entire northwest corner of the country is shrouded with smokey haze. For over a week now this smoke precipitated health warnings for the aged, young and those with any respiratory conditions.
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Frankly we got quite tired of the smoke and the eerie other-worldly red and orange colors that were cast on our surroundings. For the most part we were cloudless but you’d never know it. It is normally our time of the year to get a little sunshine and this year we got smoked out.