Wildfire Smoke Fills the Skies Above The Northwest

 If you viewed the skies around sunrise and sunset during the last day, it was evident that a massive cloud of smoke had moved in overhead.

For example, here is a northwest view from the Seattle PanoCam just before sunrise this morning.   Stunning.  Lots of smoke in the sky.

And if you needed more evidence that our sky was full of smoke, below is the visible satellite image at 6:52 AM this morning (Monday, July 13).  

Wow.  Lots of smoke over our region.

Yet, with all this smoke, surface air quality is excellent, as shown by the latest observations from the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency (green means good air quality).

How could this be?

The answer to this conundrum is that the smoke is located many thousands of feet aloft, so high that it can not mix down to the surface.   

To prove this, here are observations from a laser-based ceilometer in Marysville, Washington.  This device shoots a laser vertically, allowing it to sense smoke and clouds above the surface.

This morning, the smoke was around 3000 meters (about 10,000 ft) above the surface.

Where did this smoke come from?   

Not from local fires, but from major fires in the Canadian arctic and sub-arctic regions, something shown by the visible satellite image two days ago (see visible satellite image from two days ago):

This smoke then swung around an upper-level low off our coast and into our region.   I can demonstrate this with the upper-level weather map (about 18,000 ft, 500 hPa pressure) for early Sunday morning (below).  The wind barbs show the wind speed and direction.  

Air from northwest Canada moved offshore over British Columbia and then swung around the low and into the Pacific Northwest!

The pattern is now shifting, and the smoke aloft will move out of our region today.

The Best Weather In the U.S.

 If you asked Google AI where the best weather in the U.S. will be, the answer will warm your heart:

Seattle gets called out with "perfect weather conditions".    As a trained meteorologist, I concur.

The forecast high-temperature map for Sunday across the U.S. shows only one urban area in the upper 60s to low 70s: western Washington.  Even eastern Washington is reasonable.

You dislike humid conditions with high dewpoints (above 60F) and want to avoid very dry, parching air (dewpoints below 40F)?     

Western Washington and Oregon are for you! (see plot of forecast dewpoint temperatures for 5 PM Sunday below)

Want sunny skies on Sunday?   Western Washington and Oregon residents will see blue skies.

And you like some light winds, but not too strong?  The wind gust forecast for tomorrow shows perfect conditions over western Washington.

Air quality?    Clean air (green dots) over the Northwest (see below).   You can take a deep breath!

There is so much negative information today about the environment, so it is good to acknowledge when things are spectacularly nice.    

I won't get many online hits in saying this... but it is true.😋