The Smoke Situation is Rapidly Improving West of the Cascade Crest: But the Wind Threat to the East Remains

 As expected, air quality is rapidly improving west of the Cascades, with the transition complete by tomorrow morning.

You can see the changes in the west in the visible satellite imagery at 11 AM yesterday (top) and today (bottom)

The smoke plumes are now directed to the east, as the winds have reversed to westerly (from the west).

Low marine clouds have pushed up the coast and invaded coastal locations.    Air quality in the Portland area is hugely improved.

The air quality map at 11 AM (below) shows good conditions on the coast and NW Washington (green).   Moderate air quality over Puget Sound country, with some smoke trapped at low levels.  Such  low-level smoke will mix out today

There is s good air quality at high elevations in the Cascades, which are above the shallow smoke layer.

To illustrate the good conditions in the Cascades, below is the view at Paradise, on Mt. Rainier (about 5500 ft).   Nice blue sky!

The latest NOAA HRRR smoke forecasts predict a profound improvement in low-level smoke between today at 11 AM and tomorrow at 3 AM

And REALLY better by Saturday at 5 AM:

But there is a potential problem: much stronger winds on the eastern side of the Cascades: winds that could rev up some of the fires burning now (such as Little Giant).

The forecast winds for Friday evening could gust to over 39 knots over some areas of the eastern slopes of the Cascades.

And the predicted westerly winds in Ellensburg will increase substantially later tomorrow, according to the UW high-resolution modeling system:

Such winds will make fire management more difficult and promote fire motion to the east.

Need to watch this situation carefully.