It’s finally raining here! Yaaaaay!
For those not in the know, large parts of Canada are currently on fire. It’s been a really bad wildfire season. I’m in the city so not really in any danger from the fires themselves, but the smoke has been an issue these past few days. Air quality has been really poor. It feels very weird putting on a mask to go outside - we’re used to all doing the opposite!
Hoping that the rain washes some of this crap out of the air so we can all breathe better.
Stay safe.
During the bush fires here 4½ years ago (now called The Black Summer), despite being 50km from the nearest fire, we couldn't see the shearing shed 100m away from our home. I couldn't leave the house at all for 6 weeks. We had to operate 2 double door systems, so hubby came it via the back door, shut that before changing clothes (yes it was that bad), then coming through the next door. Shut that door before he then opened the door into the house. My respiratory consultant and my doctor were both saying to stay at home because the air quality in the hospitals was worse than that outside! And it was bad out, very bad. We ended up buying 2 air purifiers and a portable air con unit (we've not used it since) because the temperature was that high constantly (above 43°C upto 45°C here, and no relief at night because we couldn't open the windows). Wet towels and sheets at night were the only way to get any sleep.
Some 80% of all Australian forests were burnt during those fires.
The result was that we already had P3 masks and many P2 masks when Covid arrived.
But we were amazingly lucky. 6 months previously we had had to suddenly move house, and that house was in one of those national parks and the fires (one of the worst in the state) got within 1km of that house. Had we still have been living there, we would have had to move out because of my severe asthma.
One the up side, though we did have some amazing sunrises through the smoke.
This was the day before the smoke arrived at our house and the last time I left the house other than for emergency treatment.
Sunrise the next morning (with a P3 mask on).
That's where out water comes from, and was the limit of visibility for about 3 of the 6 weeks we were badly affected.
Another of those Christmas sunrises.
Both dams in that photo are dry.
They are forecasting more fires again for this summer for here. But curiously, they have also blamed the last 3 years of flooding in those fires. It changed our weather that much.
Stay safe.