Wednesday air quality in Washington was century’s worst

Wednesday, Aug. 15 2018 will go down as the worst day for air quality since records have been kept, so far. It was the poorest air quality this century, and ranked unhealthy for everyone.

“We had levels that were unhealthy and pretty rare within the Seattle city limits … saying it’s a century is a bit of an exaggeration; the 21st century is what they are saying, so over the last couple decades it was the highest recorded in Seattle,” said Eric Saganic, an air quality forecaster with the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency.

“Back in the 1980s, we had levels this high fairly frequently,” he added, noting that places like Bejing or Deli experience similar poor air quality from time-to-time.

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Cleaner air moved into the region from the Pacific Ocean Thursday morning, providing relief from the haze. Air quality improved from unhealthy levels to moderate in most areas around the Puget Sound region. But people exposed to the smoky air should be mindful of aftereffects.

“We still expect to see moderate levels (of air quality) because there is so much smoke,” Saganic said. “And moderate for the most sensitive, you will still feel potentially some symptoms.”

“Actually, after you are exposed to high levels of air pollution, often you’ll experience the outcomes, and your symptoms a day or two later,” he said. “… You may still be feeling symptoms today and even tomorrow.”

Most people will suffer from a scratchy throat or itchy eyes after experiencing the heavy smoke in the air. For some, there are a range of health complications.

“It might have actually increased your blood pressure, things like that on a subtle level,” Saganic said. “In some individuals who don’t know they have a heart condition, these air pollution levels can trigger a heart attack or a stroke.”

A Berkley Earth analysis of air pollution levels estimates that simply breathing in the Puget Sound air over the last week is equivalent to smoking about six cigarettes per day.

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While air quality slowly improves throughout the day into Friday, forecasters say temperatures will also cool to the upper 70s to lower 80s through Saturday. Another smoke event and higher temps loom on the horizon.

Air quality may diminish again on Sunday when the onshore flow will be cut off, according to KIRO 7 meteorologist Nick Allard. It’s not clear yet how the change will affect how smoky it will get, but Allard says with smoke in three directions and no rain in the forecast, it’s safe to say we will see more at some point. There is no rain in the forecast.

“We do see potential for smoke to return,” Saganic said. “The amount of smoke in British Columbia right now is just massive, and we could see some of that come this way again. We are going to see some smoke overhead from Oregon and California over the next couple of days. Thankfully, it will be back to just nice sunsets and good air quality down below. But it’s the fires in British Columbia we are most concerned about right now, and that smoke coming down, and that could happen early next week.”

Eastern Washington remains under an Air Quality Alert through Friday morning.

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