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BC wildfires & air quality


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How is the air quality in Victoria now? We will be there on our cruise. If we are prone to URI issues, should we be concerned?

No idea how it will be in Sept. You will have to watch on line. Depends on the winds and drifting smoke from Washington State and BC that we are getting now.

We still have a haze over Vancouver but it was better yesterday but coming back again with our heat wave on the weekend. We don't usually have heat waves in Sept. so the haze could be gone?? This is new to us, last year we had a smokey haze too.

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As CVU says, what's going on now will bear absolutely zero relation to your cruise unless it's in the extraordinarily near future. On any given day it can change radically as the wind shifts. Official gov't air quality data is most usefully summarized here. There's also a short-term forecast page for the whole country (and most of the US) here.

 

This year, despite the state of emergency and some delightful sunsets caused by the amount of smoke, it hasn't been anywhere near as bad as last year was, when even the lightest of sipping bourbons tasted like an Islay malt as I could literally taste smoke in the air.

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Thanx! I do realize that conditions can & will change on a day to day basis. My friends are leaving Aug. 26 & my cruise is Sept.2. I thought if I threw the question out others who are cruising now would be

aware of the issue as no one was addressing it anywhere else on CC. We hear about the California fires every day but not much about BC.

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Generally the air quality improves in late summer and early fall with rain over the coastal and mountain areas. Smoky air will dissipate with the rains.

In the Puget Sound region the air quality is varying from day to day, depending on the level of marine air moving into the area. Our air quality in western Washington is improved over earlier in the week, but we have unhealthy levels forecast for Monday, again, smoky air from B.C. fires.

 

There are over 600 wildfires burning in B.C., large and small. A multitude of fires are burning throughout the western U.S.

 

Website for U.S wildfires:

https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/?state=52

 

My favorite website for air quality:

https://www.purpleair.com/map#3/43.6/-119.39

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As CVU says, what's going on now will bear absolutely zero relation to your cruise unless it's in the extraordinarily near future. On any given day it can change radically as the wind shifts. Official gov't air quality data is most usefully summarized here. There's also a short-term forecast page for the whole country (and most of the US) here.

 

This year, despite the state of emergency and some delightful sunsets caused by the amount of smoke, it hasn't been anywhere near as bad as last year was, when even the lightest of sipping bourbons tasted like an Islay malt as I could literally taste smoke in the air.

I agree, last year was one of the first times we had actual smelly smoke and soot on the furniture! Before we might have had the odd hazy day but not like last year that lasted so thick and so long.

I guess the world weather is not like it used to be and one does not know what to expect.

 

Too bad you had to sip the bourbon inside....LOL

Still hazy today but I thought I saw some blue in the sky later yesterday?

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