Smoke from Fireworks in Western Washington

A cloud of smoke spread over the lowlands west of Washington last night as fireworks returned to the area.

The result is a severe deterioration in air quality, reminiscent of the effects of wildfire smoke intrusions in previous summers.

Review of air quality around Seattle from the EPA AirNow network for the central Puget Sound area. The air quality was quite good yesterday afternoon, but dropped rapidly around 10pm, dropping to bad (red) at 11pm. You know what happened around 10pm.

The image below from PurpleAir’s air quality network around 10 a.m. shows air quality this morning remains poor for sensitive groups, with some parts of the south Sound not good for everyone . Air quality declines in east and south direction, reflecting northwesterly winds this morning.

The smoke and poor quality are due to a massive return of fireworks in our region, both official and private.

Dr. Peter Benda, watching the fireworks from his home high above Bellevue, suggested to me that the official fireworks smoke had been dwarfed by the private shows. His photos last night and this morning clearly show the plume of smoke trapped at lower altitudes.

A thick haze of smoke, backed by some fog, was clear in the lowlands this morning (see Seattle PanoCam image below at around 9am)

But if you want to see some smoke images that will shock you, check out the SeattlePanoCam images last night.

Here is the picture at 10:40 pm….you can even see some fireworks! Quite a bit of smoke is coming to the south…. I’m worried about the people living in the downtown areas!

And the smoke continued south, through downtown.

The good news is that our air quality will improve today, especially after surface warming enhances vertical mixing.