Towheeblog

Here in the Pacific Northwest we are all smoke-eaters this summer. Fires across the region are filling the air, our lungs and air filters with soot and smoke. The worst series of fires are on the eastern slope of the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia. A fire emergh=ency was declared in that province over a month ago. Is there really nothing that be done? What are all our drones good for anyway?
If you click on this story you can see for yourself how widely the smoke has spread. Here south of Portland the sky is constantly gray, the sun and moon an angry orange.
My wife and I have just traveled from northwestern Oregon to the northern end of the Olympic Peninsula and back again…nowhere did we see clear skies, blue skies or any inkling that the smoke would dissipate.
I can see, through the smoke, that this may be our future…even here in the relatively wet Northwest. Even on the Olympic Peninsula–downhill from the rain forest–now there is a burn ban. Battleground, WA, is curtailing water use. The climate stress, drought, beetles, fungus and climate change in general will continue to kill off trees and make fire seasons longer and more severe.
Here is an image of the smoke-ringed moon late last night above Port Townsend. We live beneath the path of the total solar eclipse coming in less than two weeks–will the smoke above us then be so thick we miss some or all of the eclipse effects? Possible rain in BC next week…
Our motel was across the street from the port of Port Townsend. And Purple Martins were nesting along the piers:
More smoked images:<img src="https://atowhee.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/lagoon.jpg&quot; alt="lagoon" width="1639" height="1535" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-48831"/Above:
Kah-Tai Lagoon, Pt. Townsend. Below: Least Sandpipers at the lagoon.Pigeon Guillemot in Discovery Bay, Sequim.