Still More Smoke
Yesterday was surprisingly clear and relatively cool once the sun set, to the point that Lisa and I were able to go out for a walk after dinner only carrying our masks in case we encountered other people and needed to cover up. As we got home in the deepening dark, we could see, however, that smoke was on its way, thanks to the patterns in the sky.
I don't recall ever seeing a pattern quite like this before.
I have today off from work — I'd actually booked the day off, needed because I'm close to the edge of the use-it-or-lose-it mark in my PTO bank, last Friday, and then forgot about it, so I took today off instead, with the agreement of my manager. Last night was relatively cool (overnight low of around 15°C, which is much better than the 20+ we've been having), but after doing the small bit of Day Jobbe I needed to do before actually logging out for the weekend, I went outside and saw how bad it had gotten, as smoke from the Dixie Fire (fresh from having destroyed Greenville, California) and other wildfires has blown this way.
I drove over to Starbucks to grab a coffee and breakfast sandwich while Lisa was getting ready for us to to to Reno to go grocery shopping. I took this picture looking south across the field between the Starbucks and the railroad tracks. There normally are hills visible in the distance, but not today, aside from the railroad overpass in the foreground.
Back at home, the sun struggled to cut through the clouds of smoke surrounding us.
If anything, it was worse in Reno, it being around 30 km closer to the source of the smoke. There was light ashfall all around. Not Yakima-after-Mount-Saint-Helens ashfall, but noticeable little white flakes. We were masked up in our N95 masks and would have been even without COVID-19 resurgence to worry us. We could taste the smoke in our throats.
Normally we avoid Reno this week because it's Hot August Nights, but we figured that if we went in at 6:30 in the morning, we could avoid most traffic, and that was true. We avoided the inbound rush to Reno and thereafter the rest of our shopping errands to three different stores were counter-commute. By the time we headed for home around 9 AM, we also avoided the Reno-to-USA-Parkway crowd.
The Washoe County (Reno area) air quality management division issued a Stage 2 Emergency Alert for today, with the AQI ranging from unhealthy to very unhealthy, although not yet hazardous like it was a few days ago. Recommendations are to stay indoors and avoid all outdoor activity if possible. Unfortunately, our air conditioning requires keeping some windows open, so we can't just recirculate air, although we do have filters over the window fans to keep some of the smoke out. Indeed, I'm going to need to replace those filters soon, even after only a couple of weeks of use. Even indoors, I'm feeling a little poorly from the amount of smoke in the air. Maybe I should go back to bed; my CPAP machine is triple-filtered, and I've been replacing/cleaning the filters much more often than usual lately.
I don't recall ever seeing a pattern quite like this before.
I have today off from work — I'd actually booked the day off, needed because I'm close to the edge of the use-it-or-lose-it mark in my PTO bank, last Friday, and then forgot about it, so I took today off instead, with the agreement of my manager. Last night was relatively cool (overnight low of around 15°C, which is much better than the 20+ we've been having), but after doing the small bit of Day Jobbe I needed to do before actually logging out for the weekend, I went outside and saw how bad it had gotten, as smoke from the Dixie Fire (fresh from having destroyed Greenville, California) and other wildfires has blown this way.
I drove over to Starbucks to grab a coffee and breakfast sandwich while Lisa was getting ready for us to to to Reno to go grocery shopping. I took this picture looking south across the field between the Starbucks and the railroad tracks. There normally are hills visible in the distance, but not today, aside from the railroad overpass in the foreground.
Back at home, the sun struggled to cut through the clouds of smoke surrounding us.
If anything, it was worse in Reno, it being around 30 km closer to the source of the smoke. There was light ashfall all around. Not Yakima-after-Mount-Saint-Helens ashfall, but noticeable little white flakes. We were masked up in our N95 masks and would have been even without COVID-19 resurgence to worry us. We could taste the smoke in our throats.
Normally we avoid Reno this week because it's Hot August Nights, but we figured that if we went in at 6:30 in the morning, we could avoid most traffic, and that was true. We avoided the inbound rush to Reno and thereafter the rest of our shopping errands to three different stores were counter-commute. By the time we headed for home around 9 AM, we also avoided the Reno-to-USA-Parkway crowd.
The Washoe County (Reno area) air quality management division issued a Stage 2 Emergency Alert for today, with the AQI ranging from unhealthy to very unhealthy, although not yet hazardous like it was a few days ago. Recommendations are to stay indoors and avoid all outdoor activity if possible. Unfortunately, our air conditioning requires keeping some windows open, so we can't just recirculate air, although we do have filters over the window fans to keep some of the smoke out. Indeed, I'm going to need to replace those filters soon, even after only a couple of weeks of use. Even indoors, I'm feeling a little poorly from the amount of smoke in the air. Maybe I should go back to bed; my CPAP machine is triple-filtered, and I've been replacing/cleaning the filters much more often than usual lately.