Are we imagining it, or is Whatcom’s air quality actually getting better?

Remember four months ago, when Bellingham was judged to have some of the cleanest air in the country?

The same city that for four days now has awoken to find itself immersed in a milky yellowish hazy funk made all three of the American Lung Association’s cleanest cities lists for ozone and particle pollution in the State of the Air 2018 report released in mid April.

Unfortunately, according to a story from the Seattle Times Wednesday, this may be our new normal during the summer, as Pacific Northwest wildfires continue to grow in size and frequency during increasingly warmer summers. What was once a cherished stretch to look forward to every July and August has now been interrupted two straight years by a red sun and unhealthy breathing conditions.

Maybe we just have to come up with a new way to talk about the smoky skies that doesn’t feel so depressing? OK, well, as of Thursday morning we can see Lummi Island — something that was not possible as recently as Tuesday — but Mount Baker is still MIA.

The air monitors in the region agree that Whatcom County’s air quality is slowly improving. None of the three monitoring stations is recoding “unhealthy” air Thursday morning — instead, we’re in the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” and “moderate” levels.

As of 11 a.m., the Department of Ecology’s Washington Air Monitoring Network listed Bellingham’s air in the “moderate” range with a Washington Air Quality Advisory ranking of 72 and a particulate matter value of 15.

Maple Falls’ air was “unhealthy for sensitive groups” with a ranking of 118 and a particulate matter value of 23.3, but the Lynden-Custer station registered “good” levels with a rating of 31and particulate matter at 3.0.

According to the Washington Smoke Blog, clearing is expected to continue throughout Thursday.

“It may be short lived, but we expect at least a couple days of cleaner air coming up,” the blog said.

The National Weather Service in Seattle is predicting mostly clear conditions for Bellingham through Monday, with high temperatures climbing from 73 degrees Friday to 82 on Monday.

Apparently, Whatcom County residents haven’t barricaded themselves indoors, as Northwest Washington Fair general manager Jim Baron said attendance during the first two days of the fair (Monday and Tuesday) was slightly down from 2017, “but well within normal fluctuations.”

“We’re sympathetic to people with breathing problems caused by smoke from wildfires,” Baron said. “Anyone experiencing difficulties should go to our first-aid station that is staffed by the Lynden Fire Department, but it hasn’t reported anyone with breathing problems the first two days.”

Most of the smoke Whatcom County is currently experiencing is coming from fires burning in western Canada, according to Northwest Clean Air communications manager Seth Preston. According to a story Wednesday by the Vancouver Sun, the British Columbia government has declared a province-wide state of emergency for the second year in a row, as the B.C. Wildfire Service said 559 fires were currently burning.

This story was originally published August 16, 2018 at 10:01 AM with the headline "Are we imagining it, or is Whatcom’s air quality actually getting better?."