Washington’s air is smoky and getting worse. The Department of Ecology today [Thursday] issued a statewide air quality advisory.
Andrew Wineke from Ecology says the culprit is smoke from wildfires in Washington and Oregon that has been sitting offshore.
“It’s been blowing east to west, so it’s been out over the Pacific, but now the wind is going to shift and it’s going to be coming back to our state, a southwest wind, that’s going to be blowing it into the Puget Sound area and then the Columbia Basin and, unfortunately, into Spokane," Wineke said.
This afternoon, the worst air quality is in central Washington where many of the largest fires are burning. Spokane’s air is still classified in the good range. But Wineke expects it to get worse over the next day or so, even into the unhealthy range this weekend.
Public health officials urge people to stay inside, close their windows and change their air conditioner settings to recirculate the air inside your house, instead in bringing in outside air.