Red skies and Siberian smoke: The blazing sunrises, sunsets are back

You might have noticed some not-so-blue skies these days amid the 90-plus-degree heat.

We’re not yet where we were with last year’s hazy saga of smoke-filled skies, but you still can see some bright-red sunrises and sunsets this week.

The haze is from fires in Siberia, according to Cliff Mass’ Weather and Climate Blog.

But the wildfires you keep hearing about in California are about to send smoke our way, too.

The smoke forecast calls for substantial California smoke moving our way, “particularly bad in Oregon, where sunsets will be very red,” Mass noted.

For the Tacoma area, air quality still registered as good midday Monday on the Washington Smoke Information page. However, the site’s update said the air quality of Tacoma, Puyallup and Auburn dipped into “moderate” territory over the weekend from a fire close to Mount Rainier.

“Light amounts of that Siberian/BC smoke overhead may mix to the surface during the day, more so at higher elevations,” according to the page.

The anticipated onshore flow of air and a wind shift is expected to bring some relief Tuesday to Western Washington.

This story was originally published July 30, 2018 at 12:32 PM.