Originally Posted by
jeneralist
I'll be in Washington next week for a long-anticipated bike tour. As I understand things, wildfires have led to closures of some major roads in the north-central part of the state -- and the forecast is for continued dry weather.
If you're in the middle of this, you have my sympathies; if you are involved in the efforts to control the fires, you have my thanks.
How are the efforts against the fires going? How far does the smoke extend?
Are folks in Seattle having their asthma get worse from the smoke of fires 50 miles away?
(I can pack albuterol; but sadly, I can't pack up a Philly afternoon shower and bring it with me.)
In Seattle proper, the winds almost never blow from the East. Mostly they come around the mountains to the west of us and end up coming from the south and southwest (most of the time) and sometimes the north and northwest (most of the past few weeks). So we aren't getting any of that smoke here.
I'm sure Forrest is right and that just to the north and south of Seattle (the "convergence zone" of the wind going around the Olympic Mountains) the wind is mostly coming from the west. I would expect that anywhere to the west of the fires isn't affected by them.
Did you have a planned route already? If you tell us what that was we might be able to help more with conditions.
Have you seen this?
http://www.wsdot.com/traffic/trafficalerts/