An update on air conditions in the Wenatchee area:
The high pressure inversion has returned, though not as bad as it has been. A pressure inversion acts kind of like the lid on a pot…it is keeping all the stagnant air and smoke in. The current air quality in Wenatchee is over 200 micro particles per cubic meter (ug/m3). That is well below the 700 to 980 ug/m3 we have had for the past 2 weeks. It is now listed as harmful rather than hazardous. Chelan is about 1,000 feet higher in elevation than Wenatchee, so the air there is much better, but most attending the meetings will have to drive through the smoke. It does not look like this inversion will clear until the end of next week.
You start seeing the smoke around Cle Elum to the east or Moses Lake to the west. The smoke here in Wenatchee is coming mostly from the Peavine Complex fire near Mission Ridge. The second big fire (the Table Mountain Complex) is between the Ellensburg side of Mission Ridge and US-97 (Blewett Pass). There are intermittent traffic delays on the Blewett Pass highway (on the Cle Elum side) as the fire crews back burn near the highway. The third fire is in the Mission Creek drainage (the Poison Creek Fire) and is funneling a lot of smoke down the canyon straight into Cashmere. The 4th, the Wenatchee Complex, fire is mostly contained and is in the mop up stage.
Monitor the air quality updates here:
- Updates on WFC conference webpage: http://www.
wafoodcoalition.org/ conference-2012 - Department of Ecology air monitoring site: https://fortress.wa.gov/
ecy/enviwa/ - Chelan-Douglas Health District site: http://www.cdhd.wa.gov
- Campbell's Resort webcam: http://www.
campbellsresort.com/webcam
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