There are a lot of different things floating in wildfire smoke, but the tiny solid particles — known as particulate matter or PM — are the most significant hazards to health, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Children, the elderly and pregnant women are at the highest risk for complications from smoke inhalation. The smaller the particles are, the more dangerous they become. When inhaled, tiny particles can enter the lungs — and even the bloodstream.<doc-sep>Western Washington was under an air quality alert on Monday as smoke from wildfires around the region piled up after a shift in winds Sunday. With air ranging from unhealthy for sensitive groups to just plain unhealthy around the Seattle area, people have been scrambling to find ways to cope with the hazy, smoky air that eventually can lead to a range of symptoms including irritated eyes, nose, throat and lungs -- and worse for those with existing respiratory or other conditions. RELATED: When will this smoke clear out of Western Washington? But across the Cascades to the east, communities have been dealing with much worse conditions. Air monitoring sites near the two largest fires in the state -- the Cougar Creek Fire, in the Entiat River Valley south of Lake Chelan and the Crescent Mountain Fire north of Lake Chelan and south of Mazama -- remained in the hazardous range Monday morning, with an forecast that increased winds would at least partially clear the air Monday and Tuesday. Farther east, near other wildfires, communities saw similar conditions. For days, even weeks, many of those communities have dealt with far worse air pollution from wildfires near and far. In hazardous air conditions, people are advised not just to avoid exertion -- they are advised to stay indoors as much as possible. On Sunday, Twisp, in Methow Valley, saw air quality dip from unhealthy to hazardous in just a few hours. Chelan was bathed in hazardous air almost the entire day. Smoke from nearby fires may have made things worse in Central Washington, but smoke from British Columbia fires has fed into much of Washington. RELATED: Wildfires blazing across Washington, fire risk high on Monday Smoky skies have historically been relatively rare in Western Washington, where west winds coming off the Pacific Ocean regularly work to refresh the air. In recent years, however, prolonged high pressure systems have acted like a lid for the region, nearly halting movement of air and keeping smoke close to the ground. East of the Cascades, however, the onshore flows have less potency and often do much less to disperse smokey skies. Smoke settles into valleys and river bottoms and may not clear as readily. This week, however, the onshore flows are expected to start clearing things out at least a bit by Thursday for Central and Eastern Washington. The relief will no doubt be welcome for folks who have endured very bad air these past weeks. Senior editor Daniel DeMay can be reached at 206-448-8362 or danieldemay@seattlepi.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Daniel_DeMay.<doc-sep>Ash and smoke are choking Seattle’s air for the second week in a row, as wildfires smolder in the Cascades and in British Columbia. The air quality in Seattle this week has been worse than in Beijing, one of the world’s most notoriously polluted cities. As of Wednesday morning, the Air Quality Index in Seattle was at 190, a rating classified as “unhealthy.” In parts of the city, the index rose as high as 220, which is “very unhealthy.” Other parts of Puget Sound, like Port Angeles, Washington — 80 miles from Seattle — saw the AQI rise to 205 this week. To put it in perspective, an AQI of 150 is roughly equal to smoking seven cigarettes in a day. People breathing air this unhealthy should avoid being outside and exerting themselves, particularly people with heart and lung problems, the elderly, and children. It also shows that while the flames from some of the massive wildfires that have raged from Alaska to New Mexico have destroyed homes and taken lives, the smoke and ash in the air are one of the most insidious threats to health. Since nearly 2 million acres have burned in the United States this year from 109 fires in 12 states ranging from Alaska to New Mexico, many regions are affected. #Seattle right now. Speechless... mainly because I'd have to open my mouth and breathe in to talk. And that seems like not a great idea. #wawx pic.twitter.com/gSX1Z1X5xK — Morgan Palmer (@MorganKIRO7) August 21, 2018 Wildfires have ignited in the Pacific Northwest before, but usually Seattle’s weather quenches flames and clears smoke pretty quickly. That the region has remained so hot and dry this year, allowing smoke to linger, is highly unusual, Andrew Wineke, a spokesperson for the state Ecology Department’s air quality program, told Q13 Fox. But it also happened last year. “The trend is clear. You see the number of forest fires increasing, and so there’s going to be wildfires,” Wineke said. “There’s going to be smoke. It’s going to be somewhere.” The smoke has wafted thousands of miles across the country to New York State and has shrouded many Western states in haze. Here is a smoke forecast map of the United States as of Tuesday morning: Fires are a major source of air pollution, in rural and urban areas. Fires from crop burning in India last year helped make Delhi the most polluted city on earth. Though wildfires throw off particles of all shapes and sizes, the biggest health dangers come from the smallest ones, 2.5 microns or less in diameter. Known as PM2.5, these particles penetrate deep into the airways, causing inflammation, asthma attacks, and cancer. “Generally, we think that the smaller it is, the more likely it is to make you sick,” Jia Coco Liu, a postdoctoral researcher studying air quality at Johns Hopkins University, told Vox last year. In sufficient quantities, these tiny particles can make the air too dangerous to breathe. Yeah, it's bleak. If you have to go outside to embrace the horror, er, the smoke, make sure you have the right mask. https://t.co/kTwgFZAcKK #wawx pic.twitter.com/9SwywqKdPh — NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) August 20, 2018 In Seattle, the concentrations on PM2.5 reached 157 milligrams per cubic meter. “When pollution is very high, over 37 [micrograms per cubic meter], we start to see health consequences,” Liu said. The best strategy is to avoid breathing the polluted air at all. Officials warn that not all air masks or filters can protect against the most dangerous particles. Is your area impacted by wildfire smoke? Surgical and dusk masks will NOT protect you. Choose a mask called a “particulate respirator” that has the word “NIOSH” and either “N95” or “P100” printed on it. More info here from @CAPublicHealth: https://t.co/HWhVOnEVa6 pic.twitter.com/7ODxs3FVVg — NWS (@NWS) August 21, 2018 Wildfires are a completely natural event in many parts of the country. However, their growing scale and devastation stem largely from people, from igniting the fires themselves to building in high-risk areas. And as the smoke from these fires shows, even people far away stand to suffer more as climate change raises average temperatures, drying out trees and increasing the burned area from fires.<doc-sep>The Puget Sound area is due for yet another day of thick fog and unhealthy air quality. It's so bad, in fact, that our air quality is actually worse than Beijing. With fires on all sides -- including the other side of the Cascades -- the air quality has dropped drastically all over the state and the smoke has gotten even thicker. Some places, like Chelan, have even dropped to hazardous. Within the Puget Sound area, most places are coming in at "unhealthy," meaning many more people than average may have breathing problems or worsened symptoms of conditions like existing lung or heart disease. It also means that you should work to limit times outdoors, and avoid exercising outdoors. That advisement goes double for sensitive groups, such as people with heart of lung disease, asthma, diabetes, infants, children, adults older than 65, pregnant people, or those who have had a stroke. And it's not just Washington: More than a million and a half acres are burning in 15 states, from Alaska to Arizona. And while wildfires are geographically limited, wildfire smoke can (and will) go wherever the wind takes it -- and right now there's some sort of haze across much of North America. Even Calgary is getting a blanket of smoke from all the British Columbia wildfires. Because as Cliff Mass notes on his weather blog, the air quality is worse in Seattle than it is in Beijing -- and it was yesterday as well. Beijing Air Pollution screenshot Which, sure, maybe it's a good day in Beijing. But it also speaks to how bad the smoke over Washington is right now. As Mass shared on Wednesday, the 24-hour period between Tuesday and Wednesday morning was the "worst in the nearly two-decade observing record of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency for any time of the year." Which means that officials are also advising you keep windows and doors closed as well. Washington Department of Health officials advise using air conditioning units to re-circulate and close the fresh-air intake, and to not add to "indoor pollution" with vacuuming and smoking. Visibility has also dropped over the week. In most locations it hangs somewhere between 3-5 miles, and will likely stay that way during the day. "Smoke (model) graphic shows smoke lingering today, but some improvement should begin tonight or Thursday with onshore flow developing," the National Weather Service shared on Twitter. "Improvement starts tonight (Wednesday) with marine push and more marine air Thursday night will help again." Given the lack of much movement on Wednesday, the Air Quality Alert issued by the NWS to eastern Washington and northern Idaho has been extended to 10 a.m. on Friday. As for where the smoke is coming from -- well, it's the usual sources. The state's three land sides all have fires raging -- B.C. to the north; several Central and Eastern Washington fires to the east, and the still-raging California fires which are now ranking as some of the worst in state's history. Even still, the situation is what KOMO News' Scott Sistek calls "among the meteorological worst case scenarios for bringing in dense smoke" to Western Washington. Saturday's rainfall brought in smoke from the closer fires to mix with the California smoke being blown north. But then a high pressure rebuilt overhead, and changed the game yet again. "High pressure systems bring sinking air -- that's why there's usually sunshine with high pressure because sinking air warms and dries out. But in this case, the sinking air is dragging the smoke to the surface," Sistek explained on KOMO. National Weather Service "Closer to the ground, the way the high is positioned -- nearly overhead -- it's creating very little in the way of pressure difference to bring in much wind, but what little wind we have been getting is coming from the east, not the typical west." Which, of course, brings in even more smoke from our own state's fires -- while also preventing ocean seabreezes from blowing out the smoke that's here now. If you're looking for a bright side (if you can call it that in such a haze) it's that while yesterday's high should've been somewhere closer to 90 degrees, it held at the mid-80s. Of course that's only because the sun is so smoke-filtered that it didn't get all that warm; Sistek also notes that this mean less rising air that can sometimes draw in localized seabreezes. So even though meterologists are still optimistic about some wind finally coming through and blowing some of the ground smoke out from the Puget Sound area on Wednesday night, the longer-term forecast still involves categorizing where the haze is coming from, rather than full relief from the smoke. SeattlePI reporter Zosha Millman can be reached at zoshamillman@seattlepi.com. Follow Zosha on Twitter at @zosham. Find more from Zosha here on her author page.<doc-sep>
Seattle: Professor claims smokey air quality is 'the new normal' As of 11am PDT (7pm BST), the air quality index (AQI) in Seattle measured 185, a rating classified as “unhealthy”. The level means “everyone may begin to experience health effects, members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects”. In fact, the dismal air quality is so bad it is like smoking seven cigarettes a day, according to a research scale created by Berkeley Earth. The hazardous smog has been worse than in Beijing this week, where air quality levels are notoriously bad. Latest Seattle smoke map Seattle’s National Weather Service said visibility levels in Seattle today measured just two miles. What has caused the smoke? An outbreak of raging wildfires across the north west coast of the United States and British Columbia, Canada, is to blame for the choking conditions. Seattle air quality: Current wildfires and hazardous air quality levels on Wednesday The smoke was said to be so thick on Monday it masked the skyline and turned the sun a bright shade of red. Hundreds of flights have been grounded at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport due to the poor visibility. When will conditions clear? The National Weather Service has predicted a move to cooler temperatures and westerly winds over the next 48 hours, which should blow away much of the smoke for southern Washington where Seattle sits. Seattle air quality: The air quality index measured 'unhealthy' on Wednesday In its latest update, NWS said: “The coastal areas and Southwest Washington should wake up to clean air tomorrow morning, and the rest of Western Washington will follow shortly behind. “Keep in mind that there could still be smoke from Vancouver Island fires that affects Clallam county and smoke from the Maple Fire that affects parts of Kitsap and Mason counties.” However, central and eastern Washington are likely to see conditions worsen temporarily before fresh air is brought in by rain at the end of the week. What are the health effects of wildfire smoke? Seattle air quality: The air pollution scale created by Berkeley Earth