Today I flew to Cape Cod for a meeting on moving weather research to operations. I ALWAYS get a window seat. As we crossed the Cascades I was stunned on how murky it looked....there was clearly lots of smoke and it was pushed up against the eastern slopes of the Cascades.
Take a look at this satellite picture from this morning....there is a significant fire in southern BC and the smoke plume is heading south (see red arrow). Can you see the smoke entering eastern Washington?
You will also notice the extensive low clouds along the coast and the tendrils almost reaching the south Sound. Later on during the day the smoke plume was less distinct..the vertical mixing due to surface heating helps diffuse the smoke in the vertical.
There are going to be a lot more fires. In contrast, the people I talked to today here in New England were complaining about their cold, dreary summer.
