A brief respite from wildfire smoke on Thursday ended quickly, with wildfire smoke again pushing Air Quality into the Unhealthy range on the Washington Air Quality Advisory (WAQA) scale. (see descriptions here: https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/publications/documents/1802024.pdf)
By mid-day Saturday, air monitoring stations throughout ORCAA’s six counties showing air pollution rising into the Unhealthy for Clallam, Grays Harbor, Jefferson, and Pacific Counties and Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups (USG) in Thurston and Mason Counties. The smoke is likely to linger until mid- to late-week at least. This latest pollution seems to be a mixture of smoke still lingering in the area, as well as new smoke mixing in from fires on Vancouver Island and northern British Columbia mainland. Current Air Quality conditions can be viewed here: https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/enviwa/
The National Weather Service has lifted the general Air Quality Alert for western Washington, but NWS, ORCAA, and other state and local clean air agencies continue to monitor the situation. In the meantime, the Washington DOH offers detailed information on how residents can best deal with smoke impacts on their homes and communities. That information can be found here: https://www.doh.wa.gov/CommunityandEnvironment/AirQuality/SmokeFromFires.
