West coast fires

[Silver saucer]

Wow, im in Oregon in the central Willamette Valley and I never really thought this would be an issue. Was I wrong. I spent yesterday terrified as I kept watch online of evacuations etc, that were happening under 15 miles away. And all the thick smoke. No AC and the windows stay shut.
Today isnt much better but its not as windy. I don't have a car at this time and im new here. I have 2 cats. They are my worry. The smoke is building again and I can't see the other side of the street. Im thinking another scary day. I recognize I will probably/ hopefully be ok. I am checking official sources and not just posting on the Dis.
To the rest of the west coast and anywhere else with fires, my prayers are with you! I have it good and yet its still bad!

On a positive note Im amazed at the people on social media with tons of offers to help. Its rural here so you are talking people packing up farm animals in their own trailers and moving cows, sheep,horses, etc to their own fields or different towns fairgrounds. Its awesome to see especially with all our current social /issues.

Thanks for listening, I can start my pacing now!
I am totally not thinking about Covid for once!

 

[godisney14]

Stay safe.
Not as bad where I am, but the skies are dark orange with a layer of ash. Woke up this morning briefly thinking it’s evening already.

The pandemic, fires and smoke, record heat temperatures, a brief earthquake jolt the other day....

 

[lifesavacation]

I’m near Portland and the smoke has been so thick. That wind storm was something else. I had to turn off the air conditioning the last couple of days because it was bringing in too much smoke into the house.

Stay safe. Hopefully they can get a handle on the fires and this is short-lived.

 

[Aladora]

We were getting smoke as far North as Vancouver Island yesterday and we had an air quality advisory.

 

[MillauFr]

Looks like the worst smoke was in Lane County/Eugene. I think the smoke was just pooling up at the south end of the valley with the north winds. Yes very scary.

 

[usnuzuloose]

I live in Sacramento, and fires here from Vacaville are horrid it looked the sky was on fire an hour ago.

 

[georgina]

My DD in San Francisco texted me this morning that there was no sun, the sky was just orange. Very sad watching what is happening across the west.

 

[DLgal]

I have that old jazz song Orange Colored Sky in my head. I'm all the way down in Orange County, 40 miles away from the nearest fire, and it's even bad here. It's so sad what is happening all around. It happens every year, but this year is the worst I've experienced for a long time. Last bad year was 2007.

If you are 15 miles away, you should be fine and not need to worry about evacuations. The smoke can get horrible, so stay indoors as much as possible. You may want to purchase an air purifier since you don't have AC.

We once had a fire in the hills about 5 miles away and the smoke was so bad we couldn't see the house across the street. I was terrified, but we never had to evacuate.

 

[fla4fun]

I remember a year here in Florida where we had a lot of wildfires, and we were miserable from the smoke, and it was nothing like what you all are enduring right now. It makes me sad to see it. I hope they are able to contain the fires quickly. I wish I could send some of our rain your way . . .

 

[katie01]

I feel so badly for all those dealing with the fires and the smoke, stay safe!

 

[bcla]

Yeah - it's orange right here in my part of California. Indoors it feels like early evening, but then there's that faint orange glow. The only times I've seen anything quite like it was when a neighbor's tree was on fire and seeing the sky during the Oakland/Berkeley Hills Fire of 1991. But it doesn't smell like smoke outside. I understand that the smoke causing this is most from hundreds of miles away, but where it's higher in the atmosphere and just blocking out the sun.

I have seen brownish smoky air before in BC. We were there in 2015 when there were fires all over BC including Vancouver Island where we were. It was a normal grayish color from cloudy skies, but then the brown layer started blowing in where we could see around where the boundary was shifting.

 

[bcla]

I feel so badly for all those dealing with the fires and the smoke, stay safe!

The air quality isn't that bad around here. Kind of moderate poor quality and not choking. Doesn't even smell like a campfire. But it's turned the sky orange.

 

[superme80]

I haven't been outside yet. I got some ash in my eye yesterday, so my eyes are super sensitive today. It is bad out. I had a friend in Washington evacuate, and another friend in Oregon parent's evacuate. Scary times.

 

[Adelle Dazeem]

I think it's a bit more orange outside than the pic shows. I have to have all of the lights on in my house and it's only 12:45pm. I feel like I am living in a sepia tinted photograph.

 

[disneychrista]

I'm in Northern California. My car has been covered in ash all week. Yesterday afternoon it was nearly dark at 2 in the afternoon from the smoke covering the sun.

 

[DLgal]

The air quality isn't that bad around here. Kind of moderate poor quality and not choking. Doesn't even smell like a campfire. But it's turned the sky orange.

You might want to check your air quality periodically. It doesn't smell like smoke here either, but our rating is 105, Unhealthy for sensitive groups. There was a fine layer of ash on my car just now. I didn't expect that. Again, we are 40 miles away.

The other night, our air quality was 185. Just awful.

 

[Pooh2]

My daughter was camping/hiking in that area and is now holed up in an Air B and b room.
She said it is surreal!
Stay safe out there west coasters!

 

[Shellsbutt]

Air quality yesterday in suburbs of Sacramento was 416, rated hazardous. It was very smoky and windy, ashes raining down on my car. My son and daughter in law tried to drive to Portland yesterday and got stuck in Ashland overnight because Interstate 5 was shutdown. I guess they had to spend the night in their car, horrible conditions. I've never seen it this bad in CA in my almost 50 years of living here.

 

[belleatdisney]

It looks horrible. I feel for all the people and animals affected. The air quality looks really bad.

 

[bcla]

You might want to check your air quality periodically. It doesn't smell like smoke here either, but our rating is 105, Unhealthy for sensitive groups. There was a fine layer of ash on my car just now. I didn't expect that. Again, we are 40 miles away.

The other night, our air quality was 185. Just awful.

I thinking of it in relative terms. I've checked it out when it was over 200, the air smelled like I was surrounded by campfires, and my throat started to hurt after 20 seconds of breathing that in. Of course it's not great, but it's certainly more scary looking than a few weeks ago when the air quality was demonstrably worse.