Okay, team: No campfires, no charcoal grills, no fire pits, or fireplaces. The wildfire smoke from Canada is still plaguing the Seattle area, making it particularly difficult for kids, seniors, people with asthma, people with diabetes, and people with heart or lung problems. NO FIRE PITS!
That said, the good news is that the Puget Sound Clean Air agency expects things to get better over the weekend. “Saturday and onward, the area of high pressure should push eastward, bringing us back our more typical and cleaner air from the Pacific Ocean,” the agency’s burn ban release reads.
The burn ban is effective at 2 pm. The last ban for the same counties lasted from August 3 to August 5.
Extreme heat and oppressive wildfire smoke will become more frequent over the course of the next century. As Dr. Sarah Myhre writes, “Weather events, like heat waves and forest fires, demonstrate what we all have to lose.”
