It has been a very strange day today.
Although our local forecast called for a clear day and about 90 degrees (30+ C), that never happened.
Shot directly AT the sun, without filters, last night
This morning-- as I got ready to leave for work-- it seemed like the dust and pollen was particularly heavy on the cars in the driveway. Turned out it wasn't pollen... it was tiny bits of falling ash.
This picture was taken last night, with the camera pointed directly AT the sun, with no filters, an hour before sunset. This evening the sun was not visible at all.
Mountain Forests Ablaze
Not only were there tiny bits of white ash in the air-- like minute snowflakes-- but the sun was completely hidden behind a thick layer of brownish smoke cloud.
A little bit of research online pointed to the murk most likely being caused by the Norse Peak fire in the Cascades, which has burned about 20,000 acres (+/- 8,000 hectares) since a lightning strike back in August.
Smoke in the air reducing visibility
But there are forest fires all over the state of Washington at the moment... it is incredibly dry here in the "Rainy Northwest."
The smoke and "ash fall" thickened in the course of the day, with not even a hint of a breeze to stir the air... even though we are a good 50 miles (80km) from the actual fires. Even by 2pm-- on what would be a bright sunny day-- we couldn't even see the sun anymore, and the day seemed more like the murk of a cloudy midwinter day.
Except for the color-- which is not a "clean" gray, but a dirty yellow-brown "soup."
It was almost completely dark by 7:30pm... normally dusk lasts till about 9:00, this time of the year.
Oddly enough, you can't really smell the smoke... but my throat feels a little rough, and I have a slight headache setting in. In spite of all this, the climate monitoring stations are still describing our air quality as "moderate."
How about you? Are you in the Northwest (or elsewhere, for that matter), downwind of the smoke? Have you been in atmosphere so thick with smoke it blocked the sun and lowered the temperature 10-20 degrees? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 20170905 20:40 PDT