Got another air quality alert from from NOAA a few minutes ago. Air quality is in the unhealthy to hazardous (Wildfire Smoke and Your Health) range.
“Today should be a transition day with the high pressure system moving to the east and putting an end to the wildfire smoke flowing into our area from Montana and Canada”
The Spokesman Review has a list of the major fires contributing to the smoky air in Spokane and lots of information about the terrible and terribly long list of fires.
Canada-
British Columbia-based Global News reported the Canadian province is in the midst of its worst fire season in history. The news station reported there are over 100 wildfires continuing to burn across the province, prompting mandatory evacuations for thousands of residents.
A provincial state of emergency has been extended for the fourth time until the end of day on Sept. 15.
From the Spokesman Review this morning telling us what we all can see and feel-
For the fourth straight day, air quality in Spokane was measured as hazardous as smoke from regional wildfires continues to keep the Inland Northwest in a haze.
Five air monitors that measure particulate matter in Spokane County measured air as “hazardous” at 3 a.m., according to the Department of Ecology. That’s the worst reading in the six-category air quality scale.
Heavy smoke began blanketing much of the Northwest on Monday. It isn’t expected to lift until Friday. On Tuesday, Spokane had the worst daily air quality reading since records began to be kept in 1999.
Montana is suffering from a severe drought and a bad fire season was expected. And the the smoke there is expected to get worse.
The Independent Record is now reporting the state of Montana has run through their fire funding-
The cost to the state of Montana for battling wildfires that have burned more than a million acres this summer has reached $53.7 million, a staggering price tag that has completely drained a state fire fund that was already slashed in half by decisions made in the 2017 Legislature.
In April lawmakers passed a cost-cutting bill that called for taking $30 million from the roughly $62 million fire fund to maintain an informal $200 million rainy-day account for state government and to reduce the depth of cuts to other state operations and services, cuts that would be triggered if state revenues came in lower than projected. That happened in July.
(emphasis added)
Senators Tester and Daines are taking to the Senate floor to try to bring attention to the fires.
Tester linked fires to a historic drought that's blasted Eastern Montana and extended to the west.
"Climate change is real, and we can't continue to sit on the sidelines," he said "We have to take proactive steps to keep it at bay."
Tester also cited powerful hurricanes, and a $7.85 billion aid package to help victims of Hurricane Harvey, which inundated large swaths of Texas in historic floods.
"I am all for sending help to those folks," he said. "I will be making sure that the folks in this body understand that we also have to get resources to folks along the northern tier. ... We are seeing natural disasters across this country. This isn't a contest or comparison of devastation."
Will Montana get the flat NO that Oregon received when they asked for additional federal assistance?
We are all affected by the disasters one way or another. This year, where I live, we get the smoke.
From AirNow. gov - The EPA