Submitted 8 months ago by kersploosh@sh.itjust.works to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/6b9e0e98-79b0-4d8d-ba19-e3f5ed7daec1.webp
The Air Quality Index in my town is currently 260 (very unhealthy) due to a surge in wildfires in western Canada and the northwest US. There are additional smaller fires not shown on this map at this zoom level.
From the interactive map it looks like the worst air in the world right now.
Hello from Spokane, where we were literally off the chart yesterday! (AQI of 511 out of 500!) I went outside for five minutes to water the garden and my eyes were stinging and teary for a while afterwards.
But nobody gives a shit unless it’s the east coast, because this has happened nearly every year for the past 5 years. At least I can see the sky today.
Yeah honestly as someone who lived through a lot of smoke in the PNW, I was in a weird way kinda glad the east coast was getting a solid piece of it earlier this year. More people need to know what the fuck going on and they're way too frequently spared from it over there.
When it's bad it's like apocalyptic bad, people don't understand.
a few years ago when Portland had all those fires, I walked out of work and the sky was literally RED. It looked like a fucking bomb got dropped here with all the smoke in the air.
Ok well let me provide some contrast please.
I live in Snohomish, but I’m originally from upstate NY. I went back yo NY this year for family, when things there were unusually smokey for once.
IT WAS WAY WORSE THAT IVE EVER SEEN IT IN NORTH SEATTLE, EVEN THOUGH THE AQI FIGURED WERE LOWER. Add to that, people don’t know the most basic things about coping woth smoke there, like making box fan + furnace filters.
So yeah they complained a lot because it was truly very very bad. I sincerely hope we don’t have to deal with that becuase in the 12 years I’ve been in PNW, it’s NEVER been close to as bad as NY earlier this year.
Yeah, the PNW has been a horror show the last several summers. In Eugene, at the tail end of the Willamette Valley, 260 is a bad day but in August not bad enough to be brought up in small talk. We were in the 500’s last Tuesday then last Saturday the winds shifted and we has a whole day of clear air with AQI in the teens. I was exhausted from trying to get as mush outside stuff done as possible.
It’s been normal for the last 4 or 5 years and nearly unheard of before that.
I’ve experienced 450 in Chiang Mai, Thailand and you could taste the air. It was not pleasant at all.
Saw 600 in Shanghai a few years ago. It was horrific. Fortunately the Chinese government has made quite a bit of progress in improving air quality in the last decade so such terrible pollution isn’t nearly as common today as it used to be.
It’s been really hampering my camping efforts the last few years. It’s bullshit.
It was bad enough that I gave in and moved away. The smoke is brutal on my asthma.
living in the pnw rn is great my lungs feel spicy
Today is a LOT better than. Yesterday, I’ll be very glad to be at home later where my AC filters are keeping my place breathable… did t have that the last time this was an issue and wow. Makes a BIG difference.
Yeah, can I sue my Ex for keeping my kids outside all weekend? I kept one of my kids home today because his camp didn’t have an indoor option.
Also in PNW and Today is by far the worst day of the year here. I’ve had to use my inhaler like 4x.
Sorry guys. Shit's kinda fucked up here, but there are some real heroes getting busy up here. We're almost out of stuff to burn I think, and people keep stealing fire fighters gear to try and save their own property so yeah, at this rate, climate will win shortly and there won't be anything left soonish.
Again, sorry guys.
Yeah seeing how people have reacted to some of the stuff that's started to happen with climate change and also the pandemic, I have less than zero faith in how humanity will rise to some of the coming challenges. Negative faith.
Again, sorry guys.
Canadian confirmed.
But no worries. That high altitude smoke has been moderating temperatures in my neck of the woods and we've had a pleasant summer and low electric bills.
We had 999 (scale used didn’t go any higher) during the Australian fires a few years back. Going to need a new air quality measurement system soon. :/
Checking in from right in the middle of three of those big fires in Canada. We had air quality ratings of around 600-700 (according to purple air) today.
For parts of the day it was snowing ash.
It’s truly awful. But I’m thankful I don’t have to deal with asthma, or dealing with being evacuated.
I saw a news article saying we had the worst air in the world today, then I checked around in purple air and were a close second. A neighboring city was showing values at 800+.
Oof, I’ve been watching the satellite imagery this summer and you guys have been getting hammered. Hang tight up there, and stay safe.
I like how the scale at the upper end goes: red -> purple -> a colour about halfway between red and purple. Y’know like would already be on the scale between red and purple
There’s a reason for it, or at least an explanation for the odd color scheme. I don’t exactly remember cuz I heard it on NPR in the background. It goes something like red is bad, purple is really bad, and the people coming up with the color scheme never imagined something really really bad so maroon(red+brown) was just suggested for really really bad. And the smoke has gotten past really really bad in some places.
Mauve is next logical color IMO
Welp, we had Friday, didn’t we? (Last week there was an excessive heat wave that kept everyone indoors. Friday was lovely and then on Saturday the smoke came in)
I think the excessive heat wave is part of what caused a bunch of the fires to start/spread. The number of hot spots visible on NASA’s daily satellite imagery exploded from August 14-16.
We had that for 6 weeks in N Alberta.
I didn’t know you guys still had forests left to burn.
we have a lot of trees.
looking at that wind map, you're just sitting in the worst possible formation there.. absolutely no air is getting out.. it's like you're in a vacuum sucking in the bad air..
I’m in that area and i90 basically goes right by my house now as well since it was rerouted around one of the fires.
I’m glad I don’t live in central Washington anymore. I still remember a few years back I was stopped at a sign and the smoke was so thick I could watch the dark red sun setting behind the even thicker smoke to west at 4 in the afternoon. It was surreal.
If I gotta breathe in smoke from a fire I’d prefer it be that sourdough fire.
But yeah it’s pretty bad here lately. This situation must have something to do with the tropical storm remnants, think it’s blocking in all of the smoke from blowing east
Can confirm Doha is bad. The fog at night literally builds up a layer of mud on you as you walk through it.
it was 500 here in southern oregon two days ago. same reason. we either fix what we’ve broken or we all die.
Death sounds easier
it kinda does, come to think of it.
My asthma has been awful this summer
I feel for you. Have been through the same down here in California. It’s apocalyptic.
Nothing compared to September 2020. AQI was off the charts bad.
And it looked like this outside during the daytime: …npr.org/…/20200909_jdl_fires_001_custom-49bb317a…
Jesus, that looks over the top for a nuclear apocalypse.
I’m not sure there’s any point mowing the grass I don’t think it’s going to grow anymore.
Thankfully today is much better.
Suddenly, living in a sprawling Asian metropolis doesn’t seem so bad. Today’s AQI was mid 50s, which is pretty good for my city.
Right now it’s rainy season so it’s not that smoggy. Gets worse toward the end of dry season though.
Just be happy you don’t live in Ulanbaatar, they have worst for much of the winter.
that site is communist.
/s ??
/woosh
Is that site incredibly slow for anyone else? Any other recommendations?
Try airnow.gov
Oha@lemmy.ohaa.xyz 8 months ago
Gotta love climate change
TheInsane42@lemmy.world 8 months ago
We can only hope that this year finally opens the eyes of the deniers. (Before nature decides to finally solve the issue)
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 8 months ago
Most of the deniers I know are in the Midwest. They’ve had “hundred year storms”, draught, and winter cold now for about 5 years in a row and it didn’t phase them. Finally this year they were blanketed in wildfire smoke (and in the 25 years I grew up there we never had smoke) - and finally some of them are starting to realize something is up.
but now that it is happening to them directly it might be worth looking into
Sacha@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Climate deniers think all the forest fires are some government conspiracy because a bunch of fires starting all at the same time is super sus. Even though it happens all the time after a big heatwave / drought and pine forests are made to burn. Sometimes these trees will just… not spontaneously combust exactly, but pretty much do. Pine forests are built to burn every 2 years or so, it’s one of the ways they reproduce - pines are genetically predisposed to catching fire easily and their sap is very very flammable. These forests burn hot and quickly but a fast fire isn’t a very destructive fire. These trees often are not burnt to the ground. However, we are so effective at putting fires out so this 2 year burn off isn’t happening. So, years of underbrush, etc is building up that otherwise wouldn’t be. This makes what is supposed to be a fast burn fire, into a slow burn one. What would be a natural fireline because there is a large gap between some trees, isn’t one because all the underbrush connects them.
So it’s not just because of climate change, but we are responsible either way. There aren’t any easy answers for this one because there are houses scattered all over the places. But there is no helping these Trump worshipping conspiracy theorists and we need to consider them a lost cause. Nothing will shake their faith in their Orange God so we must bolster against them and move on without them.
BruceTwarzen@kbin.social 8 months ago
It will snow one day in two years and they go: see?
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 8 months ago
Lol no, they’ve sunk too much social capital into it.
For a bit I’d walk into discussions about how weather has been insane the last few years and say “yep, the climate is changing” and there’d just be awkward silence. Now I’m hearing people blame the sun, because I guess they’ve figured out a comeback to their own observations.
Thankfully technology is bailing us out even though we don’t deserve it.
HubertManne@kbin.social 8 months ago
not from what I have seen but I have noticed people who gave it token acknowledgement before are starting to realize how serious it is.
Carighan@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Ahahahahaha. You’re funny. They’re only emboldended in their denial.
The only actual hope would be that the fires and floods claim them. We need to find a way to basically let the dickheads be the tip of the spear idiots like Alex Jones always claim they supposedly are. If they had to actually face these issues themselves, at actual danger, that might change their lives. Or alternative, at least remove them as an obstacle to actual action.
RagingNerdoholic@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Narrator: it won’t
ch00f@lemmy.world 8 months ago
When the fires finally hit the east coast, I was hoping my family would wake up a smidge. Instead, my uncle convinced my Mother that this was the work of bioterrorists.
elouboub@kbin.social 8 months ago
They aren't affected badly enough yet. Plus, there are still immigrants around to blame. Just wait, "immigrants set the fire" will happen.
qwertyqwertyqwerty@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Climate deniers won’t accept what is happening until it directly affects them, and even then, they still might do mental gymnastics to make it about something else.
LiGuangming1981@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Based on the decisions of the Premier and government of Alberta, it won’t. 🙄