canadian wildfire smoke choking the whites...
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eddie
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smoke smell on Mansfield
Yesterday we were hiking up Mansfield in VT and I thought it was odd that we could smell smoke although the winds were very stiff from the NW, and I couldn't see the origins of the fire below us anywhere. This morning in northern VT it was very hazy driving to about Lake George NY and in Schenectady there were beautiful clear blue skies. I couldn't understand the weather phenomenon occurring. Now I know what was going on.
Yesterday we were hiking up Mansfield in VT and I thought it was odd that we could smell smoke although the winds were very stiff from the NW, and I couldn't see the origins of the fire below us anywhere. This morning in northern VT it was very hazy driving to about Lake George NY and in Schenectady there were beautiful clear blue skies. I couldn't understand the weather phenomenon occurring. Now I know what was going on.
Toe Cozy
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So interesting where the smoke appeared. Springfield, VT this morning, noticeable fire smell, hazy, hazy skies. 35 miles south or so down Connecticut River Valley...nothing...clear as a bell, gorgeous sunshine, no smoke or smell.
It is settling into the valleys again this evening... the Androscoggin River Valley is socked right in solid..... meaning there is blue haze at eye level between my chair and Rt 2, 200 yards away.
I can normally see the lift towers at the top of White Cap ( Sunday River). Tonight there isn't even a high point of land in that direction. Above local treetop level, it is like looking into a gallon jug of skim milk, smells just like my wood stove/chimney is being down-drafted inside my house, and my eyes are burning as though I'm on the wrong side of a campfire.
Breeze
I can normally see the lift towers at the top of White Cap ( Sunday River). Tonight there isn't even a high point of land in that direction. Above local treetop level, it is like looking into a gallon jug of skim milk, smells just like my wood stove/chimney is being down-drafted inside my house, and my eyes are burning as though I'm on the wrong side of a campfire.
Breeze
una_dogger
Well-known member
That's pretty incredible. I was on Goose Eye yesterday and it was noticably hazy but not smokey. In fact when I was driving over I thought I musta got the weather report wrong because the Presis were socked in with haze. We awoke this morning in Twin Mntn to smokey campfire smell, ground level ash and smoke, and the Presis were no where to be seen. Was hoping for a nice long bike ride this afternoon when we returned to Waltham, MA -- but no such luck --its hazy down here and you can see the particulate in the air. Hoping for rain and a change of wind direction tonight. Beautiful weather, otherwise.
Waumbek
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Southern Californians were visiting overnight last night in Franconia. When they woke this morning, they knew what was going on immediately. This has become all too common a phenomenon in SoCal in the fall.
vegematic
Active member
I'm just a couple km from Breeze. It was indeed pretty bad in the Bethel area today. I smelled smoke all night last night. Lungs started burning once I got up and started to move around. I cancelled a bike ride I'd been planning and just puttered (very slowly) around the house and yard. I'm really looking forward to showers tonight to clear the air.
Had the house closed up and the a/c going today, despite the coolness, just to keep the smoke at bay. I hadn't noticed how much of a difference it made until I went outside just now to cover up the grill. After a few hours indoors, stepping outside smelt like the sour remains of a campfire. And this is just outside Boston.
Creag Nan Drochaid
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Quebec fires
Nutsosa, I wish it smelled as good as a peat fire...
Enfield NH 1320' elv. breeze ca. 10 mph from west. Smoke smell gone for now, vis. up to two miles from 1/4 mile this AM. Brownish haze near horizon, but most of the sky was clear at sunset.
Nutsosa, I wish it smelled as good as a peat fire...
Enfield NH 1320' elv. breeze ca. 10 mph from west. Smoke smell gone for now, vis. up to two miles from 1/4 mile this AM. Brownish haze near horizon, but most of the sky was clear at sunset.
Jean
Active member
You jinxed us. We got plenty of smoke today.We don't have any smoke here in Montreal, funny, eh ?
DrJJFate
Member
When I was driving back to Boston on the expressway last night around 7:15, I had similar memories of LA. At first sight of the barely visible skyline I was thinking smog, but the sun filtering through the haze didn't have the dense, grey coloring.
marchowes
New member
It was cool.
Sunday I hiked in what I described to myself at the time as "a disgusting nasty smoglike haze" on Mont Megantic In Quebec. I did not realize there were any forest fires burning but I did smell smoke a few times and was mildly suspicious. I had no access to internet and I was listening only to French Canadian radio stations so I had no idea what was going on.
Monday On Mont Gosford in Quebec Everything in Maine and North was nice and clear -- crystal clear in fact. However, to the west there was a haze. You could see all the peaks in Far north NH clearly but down where the Whites were there was just this nasty brownish-greyish haze. The cool part was the Northern presidential peaks (75 miles away) were sticking out above the haze like some weird little islands in a sea of hazy obscurity. I figured the haze was "up to 4800-5000 feet". Not 15 minutes after leaving the summit my cell phone lit up with messages about the smoke from friends who knew that I was in Quebec. That pretty much explained everything.
Driving south Monday afternoon the smoke cloud started in Colebrook and by Lancaster it was so thick I couldn't even see anything more than a slight outline of the Percies (very obvious prominent peak near Groveton NH).
Sunday I hiked in what I described to myself at the time as "a disgusting nasty smoglike haze" on Mont Megantic In Quebec. I did not realize there were any forest fires burning but I did smell smoke a few times and was mildly suspicious. I had no access to internet and I was listening only to French Canadian radio stations so I had no idea what was going on.
Monday On Mont Gosford in Quebec Everything in Maine and North was nice and clear -- crystal clear in fact. However, to the west there was a haze. You could see all the peaks in Far north NH clearly but down where the Whites were there was just this nasty brownish-greyish haze. The cool part was the Northern presidential peaks (75 miles away) were sticking out above the haze like some weird little islands in a sea of hazy obscurity. I figured the haze was "up to 4800-5000 feet". Not 15 minutes after leaving the summit my cell phone lit up with messages about the smoke from friends who knew that I was in Quebec. That pretty much explained everything.
Driving south Monday afternoon the smoke cloud started in Colebrook and by Lancaster it was so thick I couldn't even see anything more than a slight outline of the Percies (very obvious prominent peak near Groveton NH).
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Mac
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We were skiing the Eastern Snowfields (Mount Washington) on Sunday (May 30 2010) & could see the smoke below us for most of the day. It seemed to clear somewhat, early in the afternoon.
Here are a couple of links on the Quebec fires that I posted earlier on a report thread by Grossking (you can play around with the animations at the second one; for example, compare 31 May 2010 in New England with 14 January 2010 in the Salt Lake City area):
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/btv/events/31May2010/
http://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.local_city&cityid=127&mapdate=20100531
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/btv/events/31May2010/
http://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.local_city&cityid=127&mapdate=20100531
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Waumbek
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Today's rain comes with low cloud cover so it is hard to make out if the smoke haze has gone, but the wood fire odor is definitely gone.
Nessmuk
Active member
Last July on the Yukon 1000 mile race, Alaska was virtually on fire. For 300 miles we paddled in smoke so thick we could hardly see across the river in places.
At the beginning of the smokey region, just coming into the town of Circle AK, we saw this strange looking thunderhead cloud. A closer look reveals that the bottom half is smoke from a forest fire. The top half is a cloud created by the rising heat and humidity from below. While the sky was still clear, a glance around the horizon revealed 7 more just like this one, all visible at the same time in the distance.
At the beginning of the smokey region, just coming into the town of Circle AK, we saw this strange looking thunderhead cloud. A closer look reveals that the bottom half is smoke from a forest fire. The top half is a cloud created by the rising heat and humidity from below. While the sky was still clear, a glance around the horizon revealed 7 more just like this one, all visible at the same time in the distance.
Kevin Rooney
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I can vouch for that.
The closest fire to us since we moved here was about 75 miles away, and it routinely set-off our smoke alarms.
It's all about wind direction and speed. Smoke from the fires around Santa Barbara will reach us, even though they can be 200 miles away. Fires in the San Gabriels/San Bernardinos, about 100 miles away usually don't. Santa Barbara is west; the others are south.
erugs
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A few years ago Brian and I were on a MOAC trip in Georgia on the Suwannee River. There was a drought so bad we had little water to paddle in and one day noticed increasing smoke and ash. Our resupply town was being evacuated when we arrived but we were able to buy some necessities (beer). Helicopters we could hear but not see were trying to find our location on the river in case the fire raged closer to where we were. We learned later that they could see our tracks -- where we had needed to drag our canoes along. It was a little scarey!
