Whatcom may see smoky skies again this summer
Although long-range forecasts show there’s a good chance of normal summer weather in Northwest Washington, predictions of a hot season in other parts of the West — especially California — could mean more smoky skies for Whatcom County residents.
And wildfire pollution is becoming a common occurrence that could be worse for Americans’ health than previously thought, new research suggests.
Whether Whatcom County will see smoky skies depends on wind direction and the size and location of wildfires, said meteorologist Mary Butwin at the National Weather Service in Seattle.
“As we’ve learned, smoke finds its way here,” Butwin told The Bellingham Herald.
“We are approaching wildfire season,” Butwin said. “We generally say, ‘Prepare while you can.’”
With that in mind, the National Interagency Fire Center — which monitors wildfires across the nation — sees above-normal potential for wildfires in California, central Oregon and southeast Washington for the months of June through August, according to a forecast released Saturday, May 1.
“There are fires burning in California right now,” said Seth Preston of the Northwest Clean Air Agency, which issues air quality forecasts and alerts for Whatcom, Skagit and Island counties.
“There are fires in Alaska. There are fires in Canada. There’s something burning all the time, and depending on the wind direction, we may get all that smoke,” Preston said.
May 3-8 is National Air Quality Awareness Week, and Preston told The Herald that’s a good time to be thinking about buying an air purifier or taking other steps in the event that wildfire smoke fouls Whatcom County skies as it has for the past several summers.
“When (the smoke) stays for days at a time, it takes a toll on everybody,” not just those with asthma or other breathing problems, Preston said.
“Especially if there’s pounding heat on top of it,” he said.
Meanwhile, new research suggests that fine particulate matter in wildfire smoke is more harmful than previously thought.
“(Fine particulate matter) can be inhaled into the deepest recesses of the lungs and may enter the bloodstream impairing vital organs including the lungs,” said a report in the March 5 issue of Nature Communications.
Bellingham’s overall air quality — while still considered among the best in the nation — has been declining since 2016 because of periodic smoky skies, according to the American Lung Association’s annual “State of the Air” report.
And that’s part of a worsening trend, according to researchers at the University of Utah in a study published Friday, April 30, at the online journal Environmental Research Letters.
“In a big picture sense, we can expect it to get worse,” Kai Wilmot, the study’s primary author, told @TheU, a university publication.
“We’re going to see more fire area burned in the Western U.S. between now and in 2050,” said Wilmot, a doctoral student at Utah’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences. “If we extrapolate our trends forward, it seems to indicate that a lot of urban centers are going to have trouble in meeting air quality standards in as little time as 15 years.”
