eve_prime | Day 897: In which, inevitably, the skies are filled with wildfire smoke

Just last night we were reflecting on how great it had been to get all the way through August with no exceptionally hot days and, especially, not much wildfire smoke! My threshold for particulates is a count of around 12, and it had been like that once or twice, but not more, not in the afternoons or evenings at least. I've been able to read outdoors every evening, for weeks!

Today, though, I set forth on a few errands and realized I couldn't really see the Coburg Hills - there was enough smoke to be noticeable. Too bad. I got home and checked - yes, the particulate count was around 20.

I did more errands later, and I was driving home, the announcer for the classical station was telling us the weather forecast. In the mountain passes about an hour to the east, it was going to remain hazy all night and into tomorow, but clear up in the afternoon. Haze! They seldom mention that, so I paid closer attention.

Eastern Oregon, similarly, was going to be hazy tonight, clearing up tomorrow afternoon and hot - high around 99. The Umpqua Valley, about an hour south, was going to be hazy tonight and all day tomorrow. Eugene... sunny tomorrow. No mention of haze.

Uh oh. I had to recalibrate. Apparently the haze here was too trivial to mention, compared to the other places? Sure enough, I looked up the particulates for Oakridge, about 35 miles to the southeast, and their count was almost 94.

So, we've got it good here.