The local Air Quality Index (AQI) reached 137 yesterday due to regional forest fires. That reading put it into the “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” range, and is the level that smoke from the fires begins to be frequently smelled by most people.

This followed the irritated eyes, scratchy throats, and filtered sunlight with an orange haze that had existed the previous days (with air in the Moderate range). 

There are six levels in the AQI index – from green (Good, below 50) up to maroon (Hazardous, 301 and above).  

The highest in recent years was 241 (Very Unhealthy) in 2021; those days meant even going outside for several minutes resulted in burning eyes and breathing that was difficult for everyone.

The Seattle/Tacoma area typically gets smoke depending on where the fires are and where the wind is blowing from  – in this instance, from the Northeast.

It’s a strange phenomenon when smoke blows in from the north/northeast.

The winds are typically cooler – even on warm days, and bring a chill to the air – particularly in shade. The particulate in the atmosphere seems to add weight to the breeze.  It feels almost unworldly.

This latest round of smoke appears to be primarily from the fires in the Lake Chelan area – not as might be expected from the horrendous fires in the Spokane area last weekend.

As of this morning, there are 13 large fires burning in Washington (most east of the Cascades). At the same time, there are 9 major fires in Oregon; and 115 (uncategorized) in British Columbia. 

Increasingly, in a typical year, western Washington experiences smoke from one or all of the fire areas – depending on wind direction.

We now have our ‘smoke season’ – the same as dry areas of Oregon and Washington, the Rocky Mountains, and Southwest.

It wasn’t always this way.

When I moved to the Seattle area 44 years ago (wow, that’s a long time) – there was never smoke from forest fires in Western Washington.  

Summers were cool (typically mid 70s, and never above 80 F; winters were wet and cold, and the mountains had massive dumps of snow.

Interstate 90 runs over Snoqualmie Pass, at 3,000 feet. It has the closest ski areas for the Seattle area. Most people learned to there (I did). Snow depths at Snoqualmie Pass back then were incredible- often 12 – 15 feet or more.

Those years are long past – the same with the deep snowpack. Some winters, the ski areas have limited periods of operation due to lack of snow. Many anticipate the end of skiing at Snoqualmie in the next decade.

And the summers have grown warmer – periods of temperatures above 90F are more common for several days at a time (certainly not as warm as Midwest or Southwest summers – but unusual for the temperate maritime climate we have).

Warmer winters, hotter summers, lower humidities , more dry fuel – all mean more forest fires.

In my own experience, as I’ve described above, the climate locally has changed.

Arguments arise whenever climate change is mentioned. But I don’t want to delve into that here.

Rather I want to talk about the fires in Spokane.

Over the years on our trips to Montana or Idaho we visited Spokane many times as we passed through; those travels included the areas west and north of the city where the fires occurred. Seeing the news coverage was looking at places that felt familiar.

And there was something else.

We have a family friend and her husband – who moved a few years ago to a rural area about 20 miles north of Spokane.

We spent the weekend in worry, wondering if they were safe as there were no posts or texts from her.

We finally heard that the fires were about what she described as 15 minutes from her (I assumed that was drive time – so likely only a few miles).

They turned out fine – but many have not. Over 700 structures (most of them houses) have been destroyed over the roughly 10,000 acres where the fires burned.

At least for me, it was a reminder that smoke season isn’t about the annoyances of burning eyes and scratchy throats. 

Smoke season means people are suffering as they watch all they own being destroyed by fire.

Maybe the best thing to do is to treat climate change as real (whatever the causes and however much, or little, humans can do reduce its effects) and work to reduce the toll drought, fire, flooding, and sea level rise have on others – whether we know them or not.