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.

Just 0.13" of rain here from one brief heavy shower. Models show more rain chances every few days over the next couple weeks.

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.

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.

Yeah it definitely is worse closer to the cascades.