A tale of two fires: How smoke filled our air over the weekend
Jun 6, 2016, 1:24 PM
A massive fire on Everett's waterfront can be seen on Broadway. (MyNorthwest)
(MyNorthwest)
Smoke from two fires obstructed the relatively clean air in the Pacific Northwest this weekend in their own unique ways.
First, a train carrying cars full of oil heading to Tacoma derailed Friday in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge. The smoke plume from the resulting fire quickly rose vertically into the air.
Hours later, Everett firefighters responded to reports of a burning recycling center near the water at 101 West Marine View Drive. That fire quickly caught the attention of people from miles around as the smoke spread south to Seattle.
Related: Heat records broken Sunday in Puget Sound
While smoke from the oil train fire resulted in a more vertical plume, the Everett fire had little vertical depth. Cliff Mass a University of Washington professor of Atmospheric Sciences, says the smoke from Everett was blocked from an upward motion by an inversion.
On Saturday, the buoyancy of air rising from below blocked the vertical rise of the smoke in Everett. That resulted in the long spread of smoke that thousands witnessed from miles around.
Smoke from the #Everett recycling fire can be seen from Queen Anne pic.twitter.com/hFAx9ngTrE
— Queen Anne View (@queenanneview) June 5, 2016
Unreal how the smoke from the 3 alarm fire in #everett has spread out. pic.twitter.com/VgIzyjbDzk
— Snohomish Co Scanner (@SnoCo_Scanner) June 5, 2016
Dark clouds from the #Everett fire blackening the skies over #Seattle area. pic.twitter.com/KY2cNkkt2H
— Seattle Weather Blog (@KSeattleWeather) June 5, 2016
Smoke from #Everett fire visible from south Snohomish Co. Be safe everyone! pic.twitter.com/yAkmu0ow9V
— Snohomish Co Fire 1 (@SnoCoFire1) June 5, 2016
Massive #fire reported at #Everett recycling center, smoke visible for miles https://t.co/RsECpxkXQD pic.twitter.com/pm0zJS1InG
— MyNorthwest.com (@Mynorthwest) June 5, 2016
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