SMOKEZILLA Versus the Heat Wave

Today was one of the smokiest days ever in western Washington as the surge of smoke from the fires in British Columbia continued to push southward.  The dense smoke, a.k.a. SMOKEZILLA, was thick enough to appreciably reduce the amount of solar radiation reaching the surface and resulted in cooler temperatures than forecast.   Seattle only hit 91F and Portland topped out at 103F, both locations 3-5F cooler than expected.

SMOKEZILLA was impressive in today's satellite imagery.  The visible satellite imagery at 8 AM, was stunning, with smoke spreading across the lowlands and coastal zone.

The MODIS image around 1 PM shows amazingly dense smoke over NW Washington, with smoke around the entire region, including a plume headed out into the Pacific.

A colleague of mine, Gary Lackmann of NC State, took this picture today from his plane leaving Sea Tac....smoke nearly to the top of Rainier!

Air quality was unhealthy for much of western Washington and a burn ban is in place.  The concentrations of particulates surged higher than yesterday, with locations such as Neah Bay's Cheeka Peak getting to Beijing levels.

What really impressed me was the reduction in solar radiation by the smoke.  Comparing the radiation received today against two days ago, revealed a drop of 11-14% in intensity.  As a result, the high temperatures were clearly suppressed by 3-5F.  Seattle-Tacoma Airport "only" reached 91F, when 95F was expected.  Portland peaked at 103F, when 107-108F was predicted. 

So SMOKEZILLA clearly took the edge off the heat-wave monster.  His (or her) services will be needed tomorrow, which should be the warmest of the sequence in Seattle (around 94F).  But there is a downside to the smoke monster....it could well keep the temperatures up overnight (Wed to Thursday) since it will slow the loss of infrared energy to space from the surface.

And did I mention that Quillayute on the northwest Olympic Peninsula coast got to 99F, tying the ALL TIME RECORD HIGH FOR ANY DATE.  And  that was with smoke.

And believe it or not, air quality was MUCH better in Beijing today than in Seattle...here is proof:

Smoke Pushes Into Washington State

Today, there was a dramatic reduction in visibility over much of Washington State as smoke from the large numbers of British Columbia wildfires surged southward.   The smoke was clearly evident in satellite imagery, such as the NASA MODIS image taken at roughly 1 PM (the red dots are fire locations).   Both eastern and western WA turned smoky.

The visible satellite imagery from the new GOES 16 satellite, also show the smoke (at 6:30 PM)

There was a rapid degradation of visibility during the morning as the smoke moved in, something apparent from the Seattle Space Needle Panocam.  Here are two images, one at 6:10AM and the other at noon.  Rainier disappeared.  The sky turned whitish and milky.

Air quality declined rapidly, something noted in the EPA AirNow graphic for the Air Quality Index (AQI).   Red and orange are the worst.

If you want to see a nice video of the smoke moving in, here is one from Greg Johnson's cam looking north on the Kitsap Peninsula:



And here is Wednesday's sunrise from the same location....very smoky and a diminished and reddened sun:



Why did the smoke move southward, while it was happy to stay in BC the last few weeks?

 Because the developing heat wave is producing lower pressure (thermal trough) over Oregon, producing a north-south pressure difference (with lower pressure to the south).  This supported northerly flow.   The forecast sea level pressure map for 2 PM shows you what I mean (solid lines are isobars, lines of constant pressure).

Tomorrow (Wed), we will have both smoke and heat (temperature peaking near 90F around Seattle).
Truly, smoke and brimstone.