(Map from AirNow.gov courtesy of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
If you want to enjoy another unusually warm October weekend, the trade-off will be a thick haze of wildfire smoke. You can see on the real-time air quality map from AirNow.gov and the EPA just how bad the air quality is in your area and across western Washington.
That heat is definitely out of the ordinary for this time of year, says National Weather Service meteorologist, Dev McMillian. “This weekend’s forecast, we could crack 80,” McMillian says, “and if we were to do that, this would be the latest, you know, on record that this would occur in a calendar year, so given that perspective, this is not something we would typically see in the area for sure.”
McMillian says with winds from the east, we’re looking at a lot of smoke, so your n95 mask will help keep those small particles out of your lungs. The particles of burnt wood and any other materials the flames touch are very tiny and can get lodged deep in your lungs, which is why health professionals recommend staying indoors where the air is cleaner.
The forecast shows cooling early next week with the chance of some rain later in the week, but McMillian says it’s too early to tell if we’ll break the pattern yet. He says we’re still looking at a La Niña winter, so it might also be too early to worry about our mountain snowpack.
