Wednesday, August 22, 2018

SMOKE!

       I live in the province of Alberta , Canada. The province to my west is British Columbia (B.C). BC is mostly a mountainous forested area. This summer they have had many wild fires...about 600. These fires are very difficult to control for a number of reasons. First , it's been very dry so the bush and under growth are dry. Second, the bush here is classified as having a high amount of fuel. That is material that burns easily and hard. Many more people are actually living in the forest so there are more people to start fires.



       The fires are difficult to fight because there is so much smoke. Airplanes and helicopters can not get in to fire areas. The terrain is mountainous.  In the summer they tend to get thunderstorms which start many of the fires. Steady rains occur in the winter. Even in the winter some areas remain dry. 

     So you can see the reason for my topic. In July we could call it haze. As the fires continued and got larger we go smoke and at times dense smoke. We've had air quality from 7 to 10. People who may have issues are advised to stay in.

      We've just finished a fifteen day period of smoke. We did not see blue sky or clouds. The sun was very orange and sometimes difficult to see. 

       To complicate matters, there have been wildfires in Alaska, Washington , Oregon and California.

      Now we did cheer for three days as the wind changed and the smoke ended up in western BC, Bellingham, Seattle and area. 

     I've been able to keep active. My biggest problem is with the heat. 

41 comments:

  1. Uncontrolled fire is scary and dangerous, and the smoke can affect so many as well. I'm wishing for rain to help the firefighters.

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    1. It's a stressful situation. Fortunately I'm far away from active fire . It's just the smoke that is a nuisance.

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  2. It's difficult with the air quality here in Vancouver. I hear it isn't going to get better soon.

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  3. Hello, I hope that area has some much needed rain soon. The wildfire are scary. I pray everyone stays safe. MY sister is visiting with her daughter at a resort in Bend Oregon and she said it there were smoky skies there too. Stay safe. Have a great day!

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    1. I am far from active fired but the smoke is the big problem. we had a few mm of rain today but it's not worth anything.

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  4. My friend who live on the big island of Hawaii also complained about the quality of the air due to the volcano. They were so happy when the volcano finally settled down...now they get the hurricane. So challenging.

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    1. The volcano would be a nuisance for smoke and odor.

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  5. These fires are very frightening and very dangerous. It's been a terribly dry summer and I hope a lot of rain finally comes in.

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    1. Fire is very unpredictable. We had a few mm of rain today but it is not enough to improve anything.

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  6. I have been unable to walk any distance at all because I don't want to get those particles deep into my lungs. We should have a break starting sometime today. We are already a little better, but not completely. We've gone from "unhealthy" to "unhealthy for sensitive groups." And the heat hasn't made it much fun, either. :-(

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    1. You scare me talking about particulates. Maybe I should stay in.

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  7. I can think of few things more frightening than wildfires.

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  8. It is scary. If only the typhoons would rain there!
    They are saying that the masks some people are using aren't effective for the fine particulates, either. Oh my.

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    1. I try not to think about particulates but I know they bother people with breathing issues.

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  9. This is not funny but I hope that you and The Micro Manager have been wearing space helmets.

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    1. No space helmets here. No rockets either!

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  10. Good steady rains are needed throughout the west.

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    1. Yes, a two day rain but it's harvest time now so we don't want rain.

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  11. Heat and smoke is a real bad combination. Hope you get some rain soon and some relief from the smoke.

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    1. It's harvest time so we don't want rain. the smoke will die down sooner or later.

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  12. Hate to see all those trees die. Hard on all around, even close as you have had

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    1. It's a huge area that has burned but the whole territory is a size hard to imagine.

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  13. Hi Red, Thanks for all the info in this post. It does sound like you've had more days of smoke than we have here in Seattle, but the last couple of weeks have been bad down here. You know the pictures I post of Puget Sound, Bainbridge Island, and the Olympic Mountains in the distance. On many days I have just been able to make out the outline of Bainbridge and nothing at all of the foothills and mountains in the distance. Yesterday, most of the day I could not see anything beyond the ship terminal which is just down below my place, probaby about a quarter mile away. Seniors were advised to stay inside even if they don't have health problems. Today is an improvement. They say the air flow is now coming off the ocean so things should clear up. Otherwise, it has just been a pain with unusual heat. 70% of the people in Seattle don't have any AC. I have been taking a break from all blogging, but have been missing Hiawatha House, so I think I'll go take a look at what you've been saying for the past 6 weeks or so. Have a good weekend ahead!

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    1. Most of the air movement is to the east so we get it.

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  14. Fire is a tough thing to live through even if it's a long way away so I hope you soon get some rain to clear the air as well as the fires.

    Sydney has had a rough fire year. Fires continued well into Autumn and then hazard reduction burning blanketed the city in smoke and now we are back to wild fire!

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    1. Wild fires are scary these days as they are worse than before due to climate change.

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  15. We've been getting the smoke from the BC fires here in Oregon all this week.

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    1. You're a long way away to you get a good idea of how large the fires are and how many fires are burning.

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  16. That looks frightening with all that smoke. The heat we are not used to aswell. It makes you exhausted.

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    1. It's going to be some time before things settle down. Cooler weather will help. There will be some frost at high elevations.

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  17. Ugh! I shudder to think what all that smoke is doing to the atmosphere.

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  18. Take care Red and I have family in BC and friends in Alberta and have heard of the things they are dealing with. I wish it would rain and rain.

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    1. It's harvest time so we don't want rain right now.

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  19. It must be horrible, especially for people with breathing problems already. I hope the dry areas get rain soon.

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  20. That's terrible Red! Lots of smoke here also. Ashes have been falling all over the place. I live in southern California and we've had fires for several months now. Our traditional "fire season" is just starting. What a mess. Things are changing...

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  21. We had smoke on the Oregon Coast. When we got back to Seattle, where it had been clear for a few days, the smoke rolled in just when we did. this may go on for weeks yet. Pray for rain.

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  22. We get a very small amount of the smell. It was worse a couple of years ago. They are so scary when they are out of control.

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