If you caught Wednesday night’s sunset, you might have noticed a particularly red sun in a smoldering pink sky. That appearance is due to some smoke from wildfires in Central Alberta that has made its way down to Western Washington, according to the National Weather Service in Seattle.
It’s not necessarily a sign of worsening haze to come, though, said weather service meteorologist Chris Burke.
“I don’t think we’re going to notice it other than at sunset, maybe sunrise,” he said.
That’s because the smoke is fairly thin and mostly in the upper atmosphere.
“It’s not going to be like last summer,” Burke said of the Alberta smoke. But, he said, it’s too soon to tell whether this summer will be as smoky as last summer in the Seattle area.
Canadian wildfires are not the only ones to keep an eye on. After a dry start to 2019 — Gov. Jay Inslee recently declared a drought in nearly half our state’s watersheds — Washington’s wildfire season has already begun, and officials expect it to be a busy one.
Fifty-four fires broke out in Washington during a single week in March, 53 of them west of the Cascades, state Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz recently told The Seattle Times’ Overcast podcast.
Seattle weather looks like it will continue to be dry until potentially the middle of next week, with high temperatures reaching the mid- to upper 70s Thursday through Sunday.
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