Tired of the smoke in Western Washington? Forecasters say relief may be coming this week
Don’t fret; the smoky conditions seen around Tacoma and the South Sound region aren’t here to stay. The National Weather Service is reporting air quality should improve rapidly Sunday night into Monday morning.
Meteorologist Kayla Mazurkiewicz with NWS Seattle said folks have been focused on this weekend’s bad air quality, which was caused by wildfire smoke from blazes burning around the state. On Sunday morning, the air quality was moderate and expected to dip to unhealthy levels at times, while the eastern half of Pierce County was under a Red Flag alert for fire conditions.
Some parts of the state have been dealing with hazardous air quality levels as crews battle several wildfires that have already destroyed thousands of acres. Tacoma’s air quality alert was set to expire at noon Monday.
But Mazurkiewicz said another weather system moving through overnight will push the smoke back east. Air quality levels should be much better by Monday morning.
The rest of the week is a pretty typical one for a Washington summer, Mazurkiewicz said. She said temperatures should be in the mid to upper 70s during the day and in the mid 50s at night.
“It will be warmer and drier but the smoke should be gone,” she said. “Kind of back to the normal of what we should be experiencing this summer.”
And there are slight chances for scattered showers on Tuesday into Wednesday, but they won’t bring much rain to the region. Mazurkiewicz said most of the precipitation will stay in the Olympic Peninsula. The week will end warmer than it started, with highs reaching the low to mid 80s and sunny skies.
There are resources available for people to learn more about dealing with wildfire smoke, bad air quality and other related issues on the Washington State Department of Health’s website.
This story was originally published August 20, 2023 at 10:22 AM.
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