Orange sun rising in Milky Skies. It must be Forest Fire Smoke Season Again

[Lowell]

That's how the skies appeared to me this morning, as they did during last year's 'smoke season'. It seems this will be an annual affair now. Is the new norm?

Just checking I can see that the smoke from major fires in California and Canada are arriving. Remarkably the air quality index at the moment is a low 35 but that has to change.

[sirrealone]

I read an article somewhere that, with less rainfall being the new norm, some areas in Canada are reviving the practice of controlled burns. They're done either at the beginning or end of a season, and are designed to remove a good deal of density. Without all that fuel, fires don't spread as quickly and can be brought under control sooner. If this practice does take hold, hopefully it would reverse the trend we've been seeing, though it will likely take a few years before you'd see a noticeable difference.

[Jimaz]

The web address for the NOAA animated smoke forecast recently changed to https://apps.gsl.noaa.gov/smoke/. The Surface Smoke map there is particularly useful. Bookmark it.

We've been pretty lucky here lately but that smoke in northern California looks like a nightmare. That could easily shift toward us if those fires last long enough.