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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Weathercatch: Why region’s wildfire smoke traveled to Boston, Britain and beyond

By Nic Loyd and Linda Weiford For The Spokesman-Review

The wildfire season in the Pacific Northwest started late this summer, along with the smoke that comes with it, but September more than made up for its tardy arrival.

As the massive blanket of wildfire smoke descended over our region last week, one would guess that this headline was written for a newspaper located somewhere on the West Coast: “Have you noticed a hazier-than-usual mid-September sky?”

Not even close. Instead, it’s from an article published in the Boston Globe.

Not only did the blazes burning in Washington, Oregon and California impact their own residents, but also people thousands of miles away from the flames. Last week, a jet stream picked up smoke high in the atmosphere and carried it across vast swaths of the U.S.

By Sept. 15, hazy conditions arrived in cities east of the Rocky Mountains, including Chicago, Cincinnati and Washington, D.C., eventually stretching as far as Portland, Maine. Photographs of chalky skies, a muted sun and vivid sunsets flooded news stories and social media.

And the wildfire smoke kept traveling. On Sept. 16, NASA satellite images showed it drifting over the Atlantic Ocean. By the weekend, east-moving winds had pushed it into the atmosphere above Britain, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, which tracks wildfire activity worldwide.

The smoke didn’t stop there. On Monday, the World Meteorological Organization tweeted a map showing it had reached as far east as Finland, Norway and Sweden. So much smoke was produced by intense fires on the West Coast that plumes were able to travel a good portion of the way around the globe.

Although the smoke above Europe was barely noticeable to people on the ground, it impacted us in a big way. Millions in the West suffered under unhealthy and hazardous conditions. Here in Washington, the smoke’s intensity over the entire state for a solid week is something rarely seen during fire seasons.

In Spokane, the air quality index shifted from unhealthy to hazardous on the afternoon of Sept. 11. This meant that heavily polluted air put the entire population at risk of adverse health effects. Hazardous air levels set records the next day, when the index topped out at 499 – just a point away from 500 – as high as the index goes.

The smoke became so dense and widespread that Alaska Airlines and its regional carrier Horizon Air suspended flights in and out of Spokane, Walla Walla, Pasco and several airports in Oregon. “We made the difficult decision to stop our operation so that our employees and guests can remain safe,” the airline said in a Sept. 14 statement.

Another thing that made this episode of wildfire smoke unique? Even though several large fires were burning in Washington, most of the smoke spewed from blazes in Oregon and California, where a greater number of intense fires expelled more smoke into the atmosphere.

Relief to the region finally came last weekend, when westerly winds and varying amounts of rain scoured out much of the smoke in Washington, Oregon and parts of California.

Autumn officially arrived on Tuesday, but don’t expect a prolonged spell of cool, moist weather right away. Following a front that delivered fall-like conditions to Washington and Oregon on Wednesday evening, an upper-level high pressure system is expected to build over the weekend, bringing warm temperatures and dry conditions.

As for the smoke, we should be able to breathe easier, at least for now. Though firefighters have made enormous progress in containing many of the blazes, California historically experiences more large wildfires in autumn as seasonal winds pick up.