Wildfire smoke headed toward Whatcom again. Will it impact our summery weather?
Wildfire smoke is heading toward Western Washington again, but it’s unsure what effect it will have on overall air quality, other than creating some hazy skies.
Summer-like weather is in the Bellingham’s forecast for at least the next several days, and that’s fueled by an atmospheric pattern that’s sending smoke north from California.
Smoke is possible high in the sky overnight Tuesday into Wednesday morning, Sept. 30, the National Weather Service office in Seattle said online.
“South to southwest flow aloft could bring some smoke into the region by this evening, but it remains to be seen as yet if this will impact air quality near the surface,” meteorologist Carly Kovacik said in Tuesday morning’s forecast discussion.
By late Tuesday morning, meteorologists in Seattle and air quality agencies statewide seemed confident that the smoke won’t affect most residents.
“Smoke from California wildfires will remain mostly aloft this go-round,” the weather service tweeted. “This will not be anything like the smoke event earlier this month and should be fairly short-lived this week.”
Smoke could affect air quality at higher elevations in the North Cascades.
Meanwhile, air quality around Whatcom County registered “good” at Northwest Clean Air Agency monitoring stations, except for near Maple Falls, where it was in the “moderate” range.
NOAA computer forecasting models show smoke arriving around 10 p.m. Tuesday.
Otherwise, forecasts call for sunny skies with highs in the mid-70s across Whatcom County through Thursday.
This story was originally published September 29, 2020 at 7:50 AM.
