[iron]

this entire week on my bike commute to/from work, i've noticed a haze in the air, especially on the trip back home heading westward. is this smog? haze? humidity? something else? it seems like automobile exhaust has been a little more pungent than i'm used to, especially diesel.

[RichP]

Probably smog especially on these foggy mornings. It's likely worse on the east side when all the junk gets pushed up toward the mountains due to prevailing winds. I expect air quality to diminish significantly the more our population grows. As you can see, Seattle and Tacoma have the worst air quality in the state right now with "moderate" levels. https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/enviwa/

[wildernessed]

Year by year we have noticed the increasing haze around Wenatchee also backing up into the various drainages / valleys to the North in the Sawtooth and Pasayten.

[iron]

[Malachai Constant]

Seattle is subject to photochemical smog in the summer just like Los Angles. It can easily be seen from the cascades.

[Ski]

The entire I-5 corridor is covered by a layer of reddish-brown haze, thicker over the major metropolitan areas of Portland, Tacoma, and Seattle. Best viewing is right before sunset from most any peak in the Cascades that provides an unobstructed vantage point. Little Huckleberry Mountain in the South Cascades offers an excellent view; you can see the bubble rise above the metropolitan Portland area, then gradually taper down as it goes north until it starts to rise again in the northwest. There were, as of 2011, 4,682,790 registered motor vehicles in Washington State. (link) It should come as no surprise that all that exhaust has got to go somewhere - we get to breathe it in every day. For a really great "smog bubble" view, though, drive southbound on I-25 out of Casper, Wyoming on a nice sunny day that's been preceded by several days of clear weather. About 60 or 70 miles south of Casper - where the highway makes a big turn and heads due south at about Glendo - you can see the big bubble above Denver, which rises to about 30 degrees above the horizon. It's the sun being filtered through all that sulphur dioxide that makes for these great red sunsets we have here. (link)

[Pyrites]

Looking north from Strawberry Mountain yesterday I saw smog, from Pugetopolis, trailing to east. I also smelled slightest trace of smoke of a woodland burn. Probably not central WA fires, but a local burn pile. I admit I do have a certified Smokey Bear nose for wildland fire smoke.

[gb]

There are large fires east of Wenatchee, mostly grass and desert habitat. Hopefully, not much sage. http://firesmoke.ca/forecasts/BSC18CA12/current/

[Chico]

Smog and warm weather go hand in hand don't you know. Nothing new.

[treeswarper]

[Ski]

^ The barbecues and backyard campfires are nothing compared to what all the lawnmowers and gas-powered leaf-blowers spew into the atmosphere.

[AlpineRose]

It all adds up, yes? When we have our wonderful marine pushes, it seems to keep the smog at bay. On long sunny summer days when the temps rise above, oh, 70 degrees the smog layer is quite visible. It has always been thus. But it is getting worse. It will continue to get worse as the population increases. The increasing number of vehicles idling in the red and black lines on the WSDOT maps, lines which continue to get longer and last longer, certainly don't help.

[treeswarper]

Wait till the big earthquake hits.

[wildernessed]

[Backpacker Joe]

YET another good reason to move East like some of us have done.