Canadian wildfires

By Diane Hettrick

As to why we are dealing with all the smoke in the air, above is the 8-6-2017 wildfire map from Canada. It is updated daily. It's based on satellite imagery that shows hot spots, with known heat sources such as factories filtered out.

The Canadians also publish a daily Smoke Forecast. It's experimental and probably about as accurate as most weather forecasts. It shows huge amounts of smoke coming south from the western provinces and alternating between funneling down Puget Sound and flowing east of the mountains.

If you opened your windows this morning, you will have known that the smoke was coming our way. Puget Sound Clean Air still showed no ban, but it was as bad as it has been at my house in north Shoreline this morning.

I opened my doors at 6am and managed to fill my house with cool air and smoke. All the neighborhood was full of smoke, all the way down to the ground. By 2pm it had cleared. When we got to Kenmore and could see across the lake, the east side was solid smoke.

By 7pm, the smoke was higher in the air, clinging to hills and treetops. And the sun was the most incredible color I have ever seen - a brilliant red-orange in a sky full of smoke.