Wildfires are ablaze…a seasonal affliction.
And a wind shift is going to bring us the smoke.
Those of you at the Spokane Worldcon may remember the Bloody Sun and the fact you couldn’t find Mt. Spokane or its neighbors…or see the building down the street. That’s the worst it ever was. But even smoke you can’t see can have its effect. Running noses, itching eyes, and general worthlessness. Glug.
We don’t have tornadoes of any size, we rarely have earthquakes, and fire management and the fact we DO have seasonal fires means our towns and cities stay safe, but glug, again—glug.
Time to close the windows and start up the air purifiers again! Might be good to check if they need new filters, or to wash those out before you start them up, depending on the kind of machine you have.
Oh, boy, do I empathize with you. I remember winters in Berlin in the 1970’s back when there was an East Germany, a Berlin wall, and an East Berlin. The East Germans burned soft coal, which had a high sulfur content. (The Soviets let the proletariat burn the cheap stuff and exported the good stuff for hard currency.) Invariably, the prevailing winds would blow their air pollution over into West Berlin, and every time we went outdoors, it made our eyes burn and our throats and nasal passages burn. People had asthma attacks and people got bad colds that went into pneumonia and everybody had hacking coughs. It was just miserable. (And there was soot everywhere it, seemed like.) Of course, you could fold a handkerchief and put it over your nose and mouth to breathe through, and that would help some, but it still did a number on your eyes. We all looked like we were just coming off a long crying jag.
Here’s hoping you don’t have so many fires, and that the winds are kind to you.
You’ve got nothing on me. I grew up in LA during the 50’s & 60’s. I remember what air pollution is like, days when one can’t take a deep breath without spasming. We enacted laws and regulations, for years the strictest in the country, and it got better.
This is indeed true. The last time my eyes burned from smog was the fall of 1980. And I live in the San Fernando Valley. (Current temperature in my neighborhood: 95F. Yesterday’s high: 109F. Oy.)
You could bring back the Old West bandana / neckerchief over the nose as a fashion statement! LOL!
It may be uncomfortable, even dangerous for some, however there IS a “bright side”. Regular fires create a patchwork of areas with greater and lesser susceptiblity for subsequent burns. That helps prevent great conflagrations. People were intolerant of burns in Yellowstone, but what they did just created the ’88 conflagration that burned 36% of the park, 793,880 acres. Finally, wisely, “let it burn” is an option on the table.
Naturally occuring wildfires, yes. Those set intentionally or by careless idiots who don’t know how to properly set and/or extinguish a campfire, though, I believe fighting is a viable option.
Au contraire, mon ami. Forest managers now approach fire as an optional tool they may use themselves. The critical question isn’t how the fire started, but whether it can be more useful than threat, i.e. where the fire is in relation to previous burns, and prevailing weather and forest conditions: type of trees, fuel load, bark bettle infestation, terrain, time of year, etc. (Not to mention threats to human beings, though their properties cannot dictate.)
Of course, this is not to suggest arson isn’t to be given the full force of the law. Just that once you’ve got one, you need to figure out what to do with, ahem, “conditions on the ground”. Origination is now irrelevant.
I just got back from a road trip to the Okanagan for a family reunion. The fire season in BC has been bad this year with up to 45,000 people evacuated at times and its only the beginning of Aug. Anyhow I stopped in Merritt for the ritual gas-up and ice-cream-at-the-Dairy-Queen before heading down the Coquihalla and the air reminded me strongly of Spokane 2015. Even back home, the setting sun was a giant blood orange last night.
When we get bad vog, sometimes if you are driving down the central Maui valley, you can’t see the mountains on either side of you, only perhaps 3-4 miles distant.
Driving into Cleveland was also pretty smoggy; one main artery went right by the steel mills and you could see the red-hot steel being rolled out, and the blue jets of flame from the coke ovens burning off impurities.