Worst air quality on record as another surge of wildfire smoke hits Puget Sound – Breathing Seattle’s air right now is like smoking 7 cigarettes

By Umair Irfan 21 August 2018(Vox) – Ash and smoke are choking Seattle’s air for the second week in a row, as wildfires smolder in the Cascades and in British Columbia.As of Tuesday morning, the Air Quality Index in Seattle was at 181, a rating classified as “unhealthy.” In parts of the city, the index […]

Image of the Day: Satellite view of smokestorm over Washington state and Western Canada, 20 August 2018

By Kathryn Hansen 17 August 2018(NASA) – In mid-August 2018, deadly blazes across the western United States and Canada continued to destroy structures and disrupt the lives of millions of people. But you did not have to be close to the fires to witness its effects. These images show just how far across North America […]

Families on edge and on alert in British Columbia wildfires – “It’s ruining people’s homes, it’s ruining wildlife, it’s ruining full communities”

20 August 2018 (The Canadian Press) – Some headway was made over the weekend battling hundreds of blazes across British Columbia, according to crews battling the wildfires, but thick smoke continues to blanket the province and create challenges for communities far from any flames. The B.C. Wildfire Service says there weren’t many lightning strikes last […]

Smoke degrades air quality to “very unhealthy” for parts of Puget Sound region and “hazardous” for Eastern Washington

By Scott Sistek 20 August 2018 SEATTLE (KOMO News) – Air quality in some areas of Western Washington has degraded from “unhealthy” to “very unhealthy,” especially in the South Sound as wildfire smoke from British Columbia continues to pour into the region.As of 8 a.m. Monday, monitoring sites in Tacoma, Auburn, and Port Angeles reported […]

Summer weather is getting “stuck” due to Arctic warming – “What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic”

By Jonathan Watts 20 August 2018 (The Guardian) – Summer weather patterns are increasingly likely to stall in Europe, North America, and parts of Asia, according to a new climate study that explains why Arctic warming is making heatwaves elsewhere more persistent and dangerous. Rising temperatures in the Arctic have slowed the circulation of the […]

“Smokestorm” from B.C. wildfires now pushing into Western Washington

By Cliff Mass 19 August 2018 (Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog) – During the next 12 hours there should be a major influx of wildfire smoke into the lower elevations of western Washington. The MODIS satellite imagery around noon showed very dense smoke over eastern WA and the north Cascades, with lesser but substantial […]

Smoke from California wildfires will blow to UK because of tropical storm

By Tom Herbert 18 August 2018 (Metro) – A storm is set to batter Britain with wind and rain, bringing with it smoke from the wildfires in California. Forecasters say a tropical storm is moving eastwards across the Atlantic Ocean and will hit the UK and Ireland today. And smoke from the deadly wildfires in […]

Amid fires and hurricanes, price of climate change begins to hit home – “If there’s water in your street, no one really cares if you’re a Republican or a Democrat”

By Laurent Belsie 16 August 2018 (The Christian Science Monitor) – Climate change is starting to pack an economic punch. In California this summer, severe wildfires have intensified a political brawl over who should shoulder the liability. Utility companies, which carry most of the risk if their equipment starts a fire, charge that they could […]

New South Wales battles dozens of winter bushfires

16 August 2018 (BBC News) – Emergency crews in Australia are battling unseasonal bushfires which have erupted across drought-stricken New South Wales (NSW). Almost 80 fires were burning along the state’s coast on Thursday, having ripped through more than 1,000 hectares in recent days. No lives or homes were in immediate danger, according to officials. […]

Why California’s largest fire in history is so difficult to contain

By Alene Tchekmedyian and Alejandra Reyes-Velarde 16 August 2018 (Los Angeles Times) – Each day on the front lines of California’s largest wildfire, firefighters start their shifts noting their safety zones and escape routes. Flames from the Mendocino Complex are still ripping through thousands of acres a day of steep, mountainous terrain packed with dead […]

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