August 2026 PNW Weather

[LowerGarfield]

2 hours ago, MossMan said:

Love getting my monthly $$ estimate of our property in my email…Not only seeing how much equity we have in it now, but mainly to see this picture every time from the original MLS listing (snow was remnants of the great February 2018 event before we bought in May of 2018)

We got a letter last week saying we won't have to carry PMI anymore. Should save us a good $50 a month or so.

[Doom Buster]

20 minutes ago, Chewbacca Defense said:

We got in our house in 2013 right as market was coming off bottom and rates were still good, and refinanced to get another .5% right before the rates shot up to their current stupidity.  There are 99 reasons we want to sell and get out of this house, and 2 reason we are staying.....and its the rate and the equity 

Seems by this point you should have enough equity to sell and put like 50% down on a new place? Assuming you put at least 20% down payment on current mortgage.

Unless you are looking to upsize or move somewhere more expensive, but from what you've shared that seems doubtful.

[Chewbacca Defense]

1 minute ago, Doom Buster said:

Seems by this point you should have enough equity to sell and put like 50% down on a new place? Assuming you put at least 20% down payment on current mortgage.

Unless you are looking to upsize or move somewhere more expensive, but from what you've shared that seems doubtful.

Downsize on house, upsize on land, so roughly the same price.  the mortgage would be about the same (maybe $50-80k more thanks to closing fees) but at twice the rate.

Our house is on a postage stamp.  2800 sq ft house on a 5,500 sq ft lot.  Luckily I only have a house on one side, but they installed an on demand water heater, and the exhaust blows right at my front door.  There is about 10-12 feet between my front door and the side of their house.

 

I would love to get in a 1,800 to 2,000 sq ft house on 1-3 acres.

[Deweydog]

Stickage!

[Phishy Wx]

10 minutes ago, Chewbacca Defense said:

Downsize on house, upsize on land, so roughly the same price.  the mortgage would be about the same (maybe $50-80k more thanks to closing fees) but at twice the rate.

Our house is on a postage stamp.  2800 sq ft house on a 5,500 sq ft lot.  Luckily I only have a house on one side, but they installed an on demand water heater, and the exhaust blows right at my front door.  There is about 10-12 feet between my front door and the side of their house.

 

I would love to get in a 1,800 to 2,000 sq ft house on 1-3 acres.

yup thats why I want to move back east, land and a house on acreage thats still relatively affordable yet close to amenities and stuff you need when you get older. 

[Phishy Wx]

here we go again. oof

 

[Doom Buster]

25 minutes ago, Chewbacca Defense said:

Downsize on house, upsize on land, so roughly the same price.  the mortgage would be about the same (maybe $50-80k more thanks to closing fees) but at twice the rate.

Our house is on a postage stamp.  2800 sq ft house on a 5,500 sq ft lot.  Luckily I only have a house on one side, but they installed an on demand water heater, and the exhaust blows right at my front door.  There is about 10-12 feet between my front door and the side of their house.

 

I would love to get in a 1,800 to 2,000 sq ft house on 1-3 acres.

Gotcha. Yeah, it really only make financial sense to buy a place right now (for most people) if you can put down a huge down payment. Or even better just pay cash if you're downsizing and have enough equity.

[MossMan]

1 hour ago, Chewbacca Defense said:

Downsize on house, upsize on land, so roughly the same price.  the mortgage would be about the same (maybe $50-80k more thanks to closing fees) but at twice the rate.

Our house is on a postage stamp.  2800 sq ft house on a 5,500 sq ft lot.  Luckily I only have a house on one side, but they installed an on demand water heater, and the exhaust blows right at my front door.  There is about 10-12 feet between my front door and the side of their house.

 

I would love to get in a 1,800 to 2,000 sq ft house on 1-3 acres.

Ugh…Reason #274 why I don’t want to ever live close to anyone else…I have an on demand hot water heater and it can smell quite propaney on that side of the house…I couldn’t imagine having my front door right next to it.

[Meatyorologist]

Blasting through Beaverton on the way to the coast. 93F and smoky. Yuck

[Meatyorologist]

12z AI Euro would be smoketastic. ULL parks over the WA/BC border stoking flames off to the east, then a thermal trough rides up the coast and siphons in the goods to the westside while triggering dry thunderstorms over the high terrain. This summer may be an all timer!

[Chewbacca Defense]

20 minutes ago, MossMan said:

Ugh…Reason #274 why I don’t want to ever live close to anyone else…I have an on demand hot water heater and it can smell quite propaney on that side of the house…I couldn’t imagine having my front door right next to it.

Yeah I said something to them about it, and they consulted their installer and he said nothing could be done about it.  Most days there is enough of a breeze that it does not matter, but when its calm, it sucks.

[TT-SEA]

Current smoke map and then for Friday morning... can't wait.

[KeyPeninsula_Wx]

The past few days haven’t been terrible in terms of smoke up in the south sound atleast. In the EPSL it’s a been a little higher but for the most part has been in the 100-150 AQI range. IMBY I don’t think we’ve even gotten past 100 west of the sound. 

[KeyPeninsula_Wx]

I’d definitely still say we haven’t had anything truly horrible in terms of smoke still since 2020 and 2022. It definitely looks a lot worse down Oregon…

[TigerWoodsLibido]

Absolutely awful out there. Can barely see a quarter mile the smoke is so bad and hurts your lungs after just a few mins.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

This has been horrendous. And to be having respiratory issues going into this. Personally it’s been a total nightmare. 

[TigerWoodsLibido]

Really starting to notice the longer nights.

[T-Town]

1 hour ago, KeyPeninsula_Wx said:

The past few days haven’t been terrible in terms of smoke up in the south sound atleast. In the EPSL it’s a been a little higher but for the most part has been in the 100-150 AQI range. IMBY I don’t think we’ve even gotten past 100 west of the sound. 

It’s not bad at all here tonight. Last night was much smokier, at least visually. 

[TigerWoodsLibido]

Fuckk this bullshitt.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Springfield Drifters game was canceled due to air quality.  Last game of the year. 

[TT-SEA]

28 minutes ago, T-Town said:

It’s not bad at all here tonight. Last night was much smokier, at least visually. 

Looks pretty bad still in Seattle.

[Tanis Leach]

This may be the first time I'm happy I'm injured out of running. 

[KeyPeninsula_Wx]

Can see the westward wind shift underway but that’s just means fanning the flames. C’mon super Nino bring fall early…could use some August 2019 or 2024 type stuff. 

[Port Angeles Foothiller]

1 minute ago, KeyPeninsula_Wx said:

Can see the westward wind shift underway but that’s just means fanning the flames. C’mon super Nino bring fall early…could use some August 2019 or 2024 type stuff. 

Those fires are healthy…

[KeyPeninsula_Wx]

2 minutes ago, Port Angeles Foothiller said:

Those fires are healthy…

Yeah not good…lot of destruction and acreage burned. I have a feeling we will also have a much worse smoke fest in a couple weeks time or in September west of the mountains. This round wasn’t really too bad. 

[Phishy Wx]

smoke fest the worst

[SnowWillarrive]

1 hour ago, T-Town said:

It’s not bad at all here tonight. Last night was much smokier, at least visually. 

Yea I think today seems better to me.

AQI is now in the low 140s here. It was a lot worse this morning.

[T-Town]

35 minutes ago, TT-SEA said:

Looks pretty bad still in Seattle.

Yeah we’re sitting on the east side of the house to stay out of the sun. Looking west again, it’s probably a little worse than last night. 

[T-Town]

2 minutes ago, SnowWillarrive said:

Yea I think today seems better to me.

AQI is now in the low 140s here. It was a lot worse this morning.

It looks like there’s a pretty sharp aqi gradient for whatever reason. Worse on the eastside and better from the sound west. 

[TigerWoodsLibido]

My implant is starting to hurt cuz of this. Goddamit

[KeyPeninsula_Wx]

Don’t remember the exact AQI numbers believe we had a lot of +500 days but this was in September 2020. By far the worst smoke I’ve seen west of the mountains.
 

2022 had some nasty days too but it was more just smoky for several weeks straight not the super dense smoke like 2020 was for almost 2 weeks. 

[GobBluth]

Smoke is definitely thinning in Beaverton. Vague hints of blue sky above.

[KeyPeninsula_Wx]

8 minutes ago, T-Town said:

It looks like there’s a pretty sharp aqi gradient for whatever reason. Worse on the eastside and better from the sound west. 

Yeah it definitely is worse closer to the cascades. 

[Meatyorologist]

33 minutes ago, Port Angeles Foothiller said:

Those fires are healthy…

These mega fires are as terrible for the forests as they are for our health. Pine trees can survive a low temp underbrush clearing, but year after year of wildfires with flames licking the treetops is what will pick apart our region's forests slowly and steadily. Heading west on I84 the gorge is lined with millions of dead trees, still standing like skeletons. Oregon is littered with wildfire scars these days.

And it needs to be said, global warming isn't the only factor at play. We need to employ better forest management if we want to temper forest fires. Controlled burns and underbrush clearing are proven methods which can help. Losing our natural environment and breathing in dense smoke for 2-4 months out of the year are both huge public health issues.

[ShawniganLake]

The massive Pear Lake fire continues to grow.  Over 310,000 acres of mostly timber.  There is not much grassland in that area.  We talked to some people that were evacuated from Clinton and they thought they were going to be protected from the fire as they were near the Elephant hill burn scar from 2017.  But the fire came in so hot and so fast, driven by strong winds and extreme drought, that the fire just re burnt the same area that was burnt just 9 years ago.  

[Meatyorologist]

11 minutes ago, T-Town said:

It looks like there’s a pretty sharp aqi gradient for whatever reason. Worse on the eastside and better from the sound west. 

I imagine the Puget Sound absorbs much of the smoke, and the cleaner air blows onshore. Further inland, surface heating causes vertical mixing which brings down the smoke from aloft.

What's more is that the Puget Sound itself creates a shallow temperature inversion, which disconnects the already cleaner air near the water from the smoke higher up.

Near the water is the place to be.

[Doom Buster]

30 minutes ago, Meatyorologist said:

These mega fires are as terrible for the forests as they are for our health. Pine trees can survive a low temp underbrush clearing, but year after year of wildfires with flames licking the treetops is what will pick apart our region's forests slowly and steadily. Heading west on I84 the gorge is lined with millions of dead trees, still standing like skeletons. Oregon is littered with wildfire scars these days.

And it needs to be said, global warming isn't the only factor at play. We need to employ better forest management if we want to temper forest fires. Controlled burns and underbrush clearing are proven methods which can help. Losing our natural environment and breathing in dense smoke for 2-4 months out of the year are both huge public health issues.

All good points but... breathing dense smoke 2-4 months a year might be just a bit hyperbolic.

[MossMan]

Pretty nasty out there tonight, hopefully right now is the worst of it. 

[SnowWillarrive]

On days like today I wish I live in Aberdeen 

[SeattleSmokeLayerFan]

That's a wrap for this smoke event. Should slowly scour out through tomorrow and Friday. Definitely think we have more impressive smoke storms lined up for later though... unless we somehow get a perma trough.