I’ve Seen Fire, But I Haven’t Seen Much Rain

Last January, if you had asked the people of Seattle to forecast their air quality in late August, very few would have predicted what you see at the bottom of these three photographs, i.e., the equivalent of smoking seven cigarettes per day.  And that’s not because the folks up there don’t understand that climate change exacerbates wildfires by creating droughts and higher temperatures, but rather because the size and nature of the fires burning all over the Western U.S. are totally unprecedented, and that the fire season extends almost completely through the year.