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chyna's avatar

Are the fires out west having an affect on you and in what general area do you live?

Asked by chyna (51300points) July 21st, 2021 from iPhone

I live in WV, about 2,500 miles from the forest fires and I can smell it in the air and see that the air quality is bad.
We have also been seeing a red moon and a red sun at dawn, due to the dense smoke particles reaching the atmosphere.
The jellies out west must be having issues with their breathing and I can’t imagine how bad it is there.

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21 Answers

Demosthenes's avatar

I’m in the Bay Area and we’ve been spared so far. The smoke seems to be blowing east and away from coastal California. I’m sure it will get worse soon enough. Last year the sky turned orange for a day and the Bay Area had worse air quality than Delhi, India for a week. I won’t be surprised if that happens again this year.

This site can show you real-time air quality measurements:

https://www.purpleair.com/

KNOWITALL's avatar

Mostly just a smoke smell in the air at times and hazy days here in Missouri.
I heard NY issued an Air Quality warning yesterday.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Same as Know.

Forever_Free's avatar

We have had air quality warnings in Western Mass in the Berkshires at my second home.
Here at my place on the beach in New Hampshire is without issue so far.

kritiper's avatar

I live in Boise, Idaho, and the wind from Northern California blows this way. We get smoke from there and Oregon. The sky has been quite hazy the past few days and the Air Quality Index has been yellow for the most part. But there have been days when we can’t see the mountains/foothills that start of the north edge of town. Lots of red sun rises and settings.

janbb's avatar

Hazy here from the fires and quality not great. New Jersey.

Zaku's avatar

I’m in the Pacific Northwest. It really depends on where you are. So far, most of the fires are a bit east of the first mountain ranges, where the wind has mostly been taking the smoke east… so far…

Idaho currently seems to be the most smoke-covered place.

Here is the LA Times’ good dynamic map. The colored hexagons are serious fires, and the wavy-line areas are where the bad smoke currently is.

JLoon's avatar

Yes defintely.

I’m in Oregon near the Columbia River and wildfires are a serious problem every year. The situation is like Cali, but so far on a smaller scale. Local air quality has been marginal for days & will likely get worse. Dry winds are spreading dozens of smaller fires to surrounding areas and some road closures are in effect.

No major evacuation orders in my community yet, but based on previous years most of us expect we may need to bug out at some point.

chyna's avatar

^Stay safe!

JLoon's avatar

@chyna – Will do. Thanks babes.

product's avatar

Here in MA we caught a rare glimpse of the sun yesterday (record-breaking rain/clouds/gloom in July). But the sun was wrapped in a thick haze, which was apparently the result of the wildfires out west. We had air quality warnings.

SQUEEKY2's avatar

OMG yes, we have been on evacuation alert for over a week, there are well over 200 fires burning in BC right now with over 25 of them being fires of note(meaning they pose danger to people or structures).
as for the air I feel like a smoke 4 packs of cigarettes a day(I do not smoke at all) but feel as if I do.
A few thousand people have been evacuated it’s stretched resources to the max the Provincial Government declared a state of emergency for the whole Province yesterday now the military can come in and help out as well.

Tropical_Willie's avatar

Yes in North Carolina, haze in air and warnings for people with asthma.

JLeslie's avatar

I’m in central FL and so far I have not noticed anything. The skies have been blue, except for rain clouds as far as I know, unless some were smoke and I was unaware. I don’t smell anything in the air.

Amazing how this is affecting people all the way on the east coast. I just googled and found this government fire and smoke map.

GQ

zenvelo's avatar

The day is dawning on another clear day here in central California, 25 miles from the ocean. Breezes have been blowing on westerly winds, so any smoke from northern California or Oregon has been headed east.

The animation of fires on the NY Times website shows most of the smoke hitting the east coast originating in central Canada.

Tropical_Willie's avatar

Went out this morning (7/22) with the dogs; sky is hazy and the air smells like smoke.

KNOWITALL's avatar

@SQUEEKY2 So what are you and your wife doing? Are you staying or leaving awhile or are you out of the danger zone?
I did hear that if you keep windows closed and air co on, it can help with the breathing but you’ll need to change your filters rather often.

The most I’ve ever worried about fire were the hay fields in late summer. We’d see the smoke and all go out and water the fence lines of our property to keep it from getting to the house or barn. We take red flag warnings very seriously here, well most of us.

Stay safe.

SQUEEKY2's avatar

@KNOWITALL The town itself is in no real danger but the evacuation alert was just in case the roads get closed and we would have no way out.
One major highway out of town is the Transcanada and it has been closed for 3 weeks now due to that town south of us getting burned to the ground.
According to authorities we must always have an escape rout.
The city close to us is full of evacuees so they don’t want to evac people if they don’t have .

chyna's avatar

^ Worried about you and the other Canadian jellies. So many are in scary situations all over the globe.

KNOWITALL's avatar

@SQUEEKY2 Yikes. Are we talking 10 miles or more from you or closer? Geez scary.

SQUEEKY2's avatar

@KNOWITALL It’s about 5 miles from us,but to get to us now it has to get across a few farmer fields that are irrigated ,so low risk to our town they are just worried about road closures.

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