Smoke in the Methow Valley, Sept. 8, 2022: 600 ug per m3 = Hazardous air. At this level, the ug/m3 and AQI are nearly the same at 600. Anyone living in the west knows that smoke is now a common occurence almost every summer. It doesn't seem to matter where you live, although California and the NW states seem to get it the…
In the summer of 2021, I was driving thru the North Cascades and picked up a hitchhiker who had just finished hiking the entire Pacific Crest Trail. This is an amazing feat and he was not much younger than me! I asked him what were the best sections and he replied "The Sierras, Goat Rocks and the North Cascades". I was blown away,…
How bad were the 2020 wildfires? Why do we have so many wildfires? How can I keep smoke out of my house? For answers to these and other questions, watch the presentation that Dan gave on January 20, 2020. See the presentation here.
First, my heart goes out to so many people who have lost their homes or loved ones during this crazy wildfire season. It’s so hard to predict when a fire will blow and get out of control. For this reason, anyone who lives in the West really needs to be prepared for this type of disaster at any time. And climate change is…
Starting in mid-August, smoke was affecting a large chunk of the country. There are hundreds of fires burning right now, with large fires being reported in: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Currently the National Interagency Fire Center (www.nifc.org) is reporting 4.7 million acres burned as of 9/8/2020 for wildland fires, so it looks like 2020 is on…
This past week, fires and smoke have flared up in the West and the smoke is moving across the country. Air quality in many parts of the West is now (again) at miserable levels… Fires and smoke have been dramatically increasing in the last decade due to several factors. I’ll discuss that in a future blog post. But more urgently….this reminds me of…