Much Of Nation Choking On Smoky Air From Western Wildfires

This map shows smoke conditions across the nation this past Wednesday
Notice even here in Vermont we had some smoky haze.

Yesterday was one of those classic, bright, blue, beautiful summer days here in Vermont.

Visibility was excellent. Green mountains in the distance seemed so clear and distinct you felt like you could reach out and touch them.

The sky was a brilliant deep blue, small clouds gleamed white in the sun, and just breathing felt so refreshing.

Not so in much of the rest of the nation. Especially in the western half, where all those wildfires have been belching incredible amounts of smoke into the atmosphere. Like it has done often in recent years, this smoke is traveling across the nation, across the Northern Hemisphere, really, joined by smoke from wildfires in places like Canada, Siberia, even Scandinavia.

Yes, it's not just the people close to the wildfires that are being affected, though obviously they have it worse than the rest of us. We don't have to evacuate our homes, worry about walls of flames racing down the forested hillsides in back of our houses.

But when the smoke arrives, it's not good for us. We're still in the clear in Vermont, for now, but we have seen some haze from the western wildfires already. Note that the map in this post shows some smoke over us on Wednesday. And of course, it was rather hazy that day. That cold front early Friday shoved the smoke south of New England, for now.

A smoky haze obscures the view of the Adirondacks from the
Burlington, Vermont waterfront last August. A wave of
wildfire smoke from the western U.S. was passing through at the time.

Particulate pollution -  which is really the smoke pollution - is pretty high today in broad areas of the West and Midwest.

Minnesota, many hundreds of miles away from the western wildfires, is under an Air Quality Alert today. Special weather statements are up in many areas, including the Dakotas, for a smokey haze that's reducing visibility.

This haze isn't good for anybody's health. Elderly, newborns and people with pre-existing conditions like COPD and emphysema are at risk. Wildfires are harming the health of people thousands of miles from where the actual flames are.

People are describing the extreme western wildfires as the "new normal" partly because climate change has made wildfires bigger, stronger and more erratic.

The new normal also means more hazy times for the rest of us. Even here in Vermont. The atmosphere out there is clean and clear as I write this early Saturday morning. But the haze will be back, sooner or later, any day now, and we'll have to get used to more days in which our Green Mountains fade behind a greyish, bluish haze.

Enjoy the clean air while you have it.