A helicopter flies overhead of Case Road Southwest as crews respond to a brush fire near the Scatter Creek Wildlife Recreation Area on Sunday.
Air quality in Lewis County is in jeopardy as easterly winds have blown smoke from the extensive wildfires in Eastern Washington over to Western Washington.
At 3:33 a.m. Tuesday morning, air quality alerts were sent to residents in Lewis, King, Pierce, Thurston, Kitsap, Mason and Snohomish counties through the National Weather Service stating that everyone, particularly sensitive groups, should limit time spent outdoors and to avoid strenuous activities outdoors.
According to Southwest Clean Air Agency (SCAA) spokesperson Uri Papish, some of the smoke in Lewis County is a result of fires in neighboring Yakima County, but not all of it, noting that smoke can travel hundreds of miles in strong winds.
Papish added that there are so many fires happening in Washington right now it is hard to determine where exactly the smoke originated from.
“There were 50 new fires over the past day in Washington, in addition to the existing fires,” Papish said.
The Southwest Clean Air Agency reports local air quality by using the Department of Ecology’s Washington Air Quality Advisory value system, which assigns an arbitrary number based on the particles in the air.
Values that fall between 0-50 are “good,” 51-100 are “moderate,” 101-150 are “unhealthy for sensitive groups,” 151-200 are “unhealthy,” 201-300 are “very unhealthy” and 301-500 are “hazardous.”
At noon on Tuesday, the SCAA, which test’s Lewis County’s air quality in Chehalis, reported that the air quality had a WAQA value of 118, which falls under the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” category. But by approximately 2 p.m., it was down to 68, which is in the “moderate” category.
“Sensitive groups” means children under 18 years old and adults over 65 years old, pregnant women, people who smoke or people with health conditions such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes or any other heart or respiratory diseases.
Papish noted that while the difference is marginal, WAQA values are different from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality Index (API) and if you see discrepancies in the numbers being reported, it could be because of the two different measurements.
But also, as shown by the fluctuating numbers that were reported by the SCAA in Chehalis on Tuesday, the value can change quickly if winds pick up and blow the smoke elsewhere.
Because of this, it is important to stay up to date with air quality in your area, Papish said.
Papish said the best way to stay informed with accurate information is to stick with the public agencies, like the SCAA, the Department of Ecology or the EPA, who are reporting the air quality.
Local air quality information can be found at the SCAA’s website at swcleanair.org and national air quality information can be found at Airnow.gov, a partner of the EPA that uses AQI values.
