Cough! Cough!

We are thoroughly ensconsed in fire season here in the Methow Valley. On September 8, a storm rolled through eastern Washington and created over a hundred fires due to lightning strikes. In the Methow, we have 4 fires currently burning just over 5,000 acres (as of yesterday evening) and only 18% containment. The wind direction has a significant impact on the air quality where I live. If the smoke is blowing down valley, my air is good. Up valley, not so good as evidenced in these pictures taken just a few hours apart the other day.

The smoke cloud on the left is the Hunter fire and the one on the right is the Buckhorn fire.

Leecher & Buckhorn Fires

Many areas in eastern Washington are suffering poor air quality because of the on-going fires, not just here in the Methow.

We have had a lot of air support with helicopters dropping buckets of water on the fires and even have a 14 person firefighting crew from Canada assisting in suppression efforts. At the rate things are going, the fires just might burn until snow falls.

Bell UH-1H Helo

Sikorsky S70A Helo

All I can say is thanks to the wildland firefighters who are working hard at extinguishing these blazes!