Wildfire smoke, heat blanket Pierce County. Here’s when the air will clear
Smoke continuing to flow into Western Washington Friday from wildfires in Canada brought worse air quality into Pierce County. According to the National Weather Service, air quality around much of the Puget Sound was unhealthy for sensitive groups.
Westerly winds blowing in off the Pacific Ocean on Saturday will begin to improve air quality throughout the weekend, NWS forecaster Kirby Cook said. Noticeable improvement won’t come until Saturday night and into Sunday, he said.
“As we bring in that cooler, cleaner air from the Pacific Ocean, that’s going to really cause everything to be better,” Cook said. “We still may see smoke in some areas, but I think Sunday is going to be far improved.”
Air quality is expected to remain moderate to unhealthy for sensitive groups through much of Saturday, according to a news release from the NWS. By late Saturday, widespread air quality was predicted to return to the good category.
Cook said hot temperatures coupled with the smoke are creating significant health effects. The NWS release suggested avoiding smoky air and staying indoors with windows closed as much as possible.
“If you don’t have air conditioning and you’re relying on fans to cool your house off, the last thing you really want to do is blow smoky air into your house,” Cook said.
Lingering smoke higher in the air could be cleared out of Western Washington Sunday and into next week, according to the NWS release. Cook said he expected weather to return to normal Monday.
This story was originally published August 13, 2021 at 1:52 PM.
