Warmer Weather and More Smoke Ahead

Warmer Weather and More Smoke Ahead

Seattle PanoCam images at 6:10 and 6:30 AM Monday morning looking northwest from the Space Needle --the eastward-moving smoke is obvious

Our cool respite with little wildfire smoke is over.

High pressure is building over the inland western U.S., resulting in increasing offshore and southerly flow that will bring more smoke into western Washington.

Currently, there are a number of small and moderate-size fires burning over the Northwest (see map), plus plenty in California (see image).

High pressure starts building along the West Coast (see upper level map for Tuesday morning).

At the surface, high pressure will be building inland, resulting in easterly flow and the development of a thermal trough (low pressure) extending and amplifying from CA to WA (see surface map at 2 AM Wed).

These changes will produce increasing flow from the south and east that will move smoke our way.  The smoke map from the NOAA HRRR smoke system for 5 PM (below) shows eastern WA smoke pushing into the eastern side of the lowlands....which was very obvious if you looked eastward towards the Cascades today.

The situation worsens by 5 PM Monday (see below) as massive amounts of California and SW Oregon smoke pushes northward.  Skies will get hazy and the sun weakened.

Finally, by 11 AM on Tuesday, relatively dense smoke from CA and southern Oregon will extend over our region.   Our air quality at the surface will depend critically on how much of this smoke mixes down to the surface.

There was a large amount of lightning yesterday associated with thunderstorms over the Cascades (see below)..... I am worried that some of these strikes might have started new fires.