this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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Smoke season starts tomorrow (theconvergencezone.com)
submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Sounds like the smoke is arriving on Saturday, leaving Monday, and then coming back with the worst of it on Wednesday.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I see purifiers made with box fans and four filter panels. Anyone have first hand experience? Are they worth the effort?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I did the version with two filters and a box fan to make a little triangle and that worked great for me. Even just slapping a filter on a box fan is better than nothing. Last year the smoke wasn’t too bad and by the end of it my filters were pretty brown. Highly recommend it.

Filters are pretty cheap and come in 3 packs at Costco if you’re looking to pick some up.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Thanks, I'll look at Costco

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

We did that for a number of years and they do work OK. Two or three years ago, we finally broke down and bought standalone air purifiers when we had a newborn. I know they're expensive, but if you get them off season they're much cheaper. Might consider it if you're going to be in Seattle for the long haul, unfortunately... They work well, are pretty energy efficient, and are much quieter than the box fans.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Ikea sells some really neat air purifiers, even one that can be used as a small table!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Neat, I'll check that out

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Didn't think about noise

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

No first hand experience but I hear good things and Wikipedia has some info for further reading. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corsi%E2%80%93Rosenthal_Box#Efficacy

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Thanks for the links

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I hope the HRRR smoke model is wrong. Here is the 18Z run for Near Surface smoke from today.

https://rapidrefresh.noaa.gov/hrrr/HRRRsmoke/jsloopUpdated.cgi?dsKeys=hrrr_ncep_jet:&runTime=2023081818&plotName=trc1_SEA-POR_sfc&fcstInc=60&numFcsts=49&model=hrrr&ptitle=HRRR-Smoke%20Graphics&maxFcstLen=48&fcstStrLen=-1&domain=SEA-POR&adtfn=1&resizePlot=1

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Oh man, that looks pretty bad..

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

There's a huge fire near Spokane and that smoke is going to add to it. Terrible situation over there.

Gray Fire @ 12000 Block of S Gray Rd, Southwest of Lakeland Village - #GrayFire https://share.watchduty.org/i/10877

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Holy shit, had no idea. It's that big after only 6 hours!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

On satellite it looks like a lot of dead grass and brush. Forward spread in the high winds is going to be tough to get contained.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/wildfire-high-winds-prompt-evacuation-washington-town-medical-lake-rcna100735

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

These longer-range forecasts should be considered very rough approximations, but it’s hard to see the smoke going away with weak steering currents expected to remain in place through the end of August.

Good thing we've still got some N95s in storage!