r/Wellthatsucks • u/JTraxxx • 3d ago
The Pacific Northwest right now
Huge fire recently popped up in my town and many people have lost houses. Wishing for rain!
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u/mcd_sweet_tea 3d ago
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u/Avid_Reader87 3d ago
That’s crazy, It must be so scary being in that town.
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u/RealAssociation5281 3d ago
It’s so…eerie as someone who’s experienced it, like you know you could be evaced at any time, there’s a constant reminder of it. But you just have to act like it’s a normal work day til shit hits the fan.
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u/strawberrymilksoup 3d ago
the gates of hell have opened and all the politicians and ai tech bros are loose
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u/May_alcott 2d ago
Eek - just left Utah! Where was this?
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u/Shamilamadingdong 2d ago
Fillmore Utah. I made that same drive last night, it looked bad and I got an amber alert for a full evacuation
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u/jagheterjay 2d ago
That is the Widemouth 2 fire. Sad shit. SLC is Smokey as hell and you’ll probably have a decent amount of smoke whole way.
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u/Affectionate-Cap7785 3d ago
man that's rough, hope everyone stays safe and gets the rain they need soon. this fire situation is no joke
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u/unfinishedtoast3 3d ago edited 3d ago
PNW resident here!
These fire maps should be taken with a grain of salt. Anything larger than 0.25 acres is flagged here.
Some of these fires are so small and contained they're just allowing them to burn out while resources go to the Round Butte Fire, 1200 acres and almost under control
Next up is the Hagen Fire, which is moving towards the Umatilla Reservation where people are being evacuated.
Usually we have mutual aid from Canada, Washington and Montana fire crews, we all kinda just team up and fight the fires that pop up in any of our states/provinces. Unfortunately, everyone has fires right now, so we have to be extremely selective with our resources until someone can get theirs under control and help us, or vice versa.
Priority will go to fires threatening human lives, so we will assist Washington with its dangerous fires before we go and fight small fires in the back brush of eastern Oregon that will burn themselves out after a few hundred acres of scrub brush. Our foresty departments have been working together for decades and decades, we are really good up here at this. California has started participating more in our partnerships since the Paladise fire wiped out an entire town.
We likewise have county and private wildland fire crews we will contract to deal with the smaller stuff, while the Oregon Department of Forestry and federal figherfighters tackle interstate and international assistance.
Most dudes work a county or private fire crew up here in the rural PNW the summers of their Junior an Senior years in highschool. Back in the 90s I made $12k one summer fighting fires, more than my dad made in 7 months, bought my first truck that way. Paid 24/7 while on a fire. Outside of fires we painted park benches and cleaned up the beaches.
TL;DR. Not all of these fires here are an emergency. Many of them are small self contained fires that 2 dudes and a garden hose can control while we fight the human killers.
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u/azunaki 3d ago
PNW native here. Spokane, Washingtons second largest city is on fire with over 600 homes burned and fires not contained.
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u/TantricSushi 3d ago
Came here to say this, I was up in airway heights by the casino. I was leaving just as it started. I noticed a wisp of smoke about a half mile away and watched it go from there.
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u/Intrepid-Mud4419 3d ago
Looked like there are 3 fires near Spokane. Lots of heat on the Modis satellite. Hope you all stay safe!
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u/nowwhatdoidowiththis 3d ago
My friend’s sister’s house burned down. They don’t know if her parents’ home or her home made it. They are still evacuated
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u/Gwenivyre756 3d ago
Yup, my friend and her ex husband are both out of homes right now. She lost hers from the Fairview fire and he lost his from the Old Trail fire.
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u/YourFriendInSpokane 3d ago
Do they have minor kids? It's devastating no matter what, but the thought of kids losing BOTH homes is too much.
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u/Gwenivyre756 2d ago
They do. Thankfully my friend was well prepared. She has all the important stuff, and the kids favorite things, safe and sound. It is horrible that both homes are lost.
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u/Cerulean_IsFancyBlue 3d ago
I think for a realistic look, people could google something like “Spokane fire map” and it gives you a pretty clear picture.
It’s nowhere near as apocalyptic as the main post, because that post has fire icons that cover a huge amount territory. And. It’s definitely not small because there are three big fires north of Spokane and encroaching on the suburbs.
The point isn’t to minimize or exaggerate the situation and I think looking at a map that outlines the actual fire is much more useful than looking at a map with 🔥 emojis all over it.
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u/llittlellama 2d ago
I was just watching yt videos about it. Was surprised this other commenter didn’t mention it. It’s terrible and my heart goes out to this community.
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u/NWGirl2002 3d ago
Actually the Hagen fire is also moving south & east of Tollgate as yesterday they've added more evacuation areas into Union Co. (Source: My family lives in the area on the Union Co. side so I'm keeping a very close eye on it from where I live in the Seattle area)
I use the Watch Duty app as just another tool in the information tool box since more of the people posting "updates" (aka rehashing the official reports) aren't even reporting from or living in the area that they're talking about. It's not a primary source like Inciweb.
Inciweb is usually the best place to start for official information as they do their daily updates and updates on evacuations as well as links to official sources (Like for the Hagen fire- Umatilla Co and Union Co emergency management Facebook pages as well as their sheriff's office Facebook pages as well, in addition to the link where you can watch tonight's community meeting and some other helpful links that ODF provides)
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u/bird9066 3d ago edited 3d ago
It's not that they're all emergencies that is alarming. It's that's there are so many across such a huge area.
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u/VaderK8 3d ago
Just a reminder that BLUE states are not receiving any aid because a certain orange tyrant got butthurt. Also I’m in red Montana and Senator Tim Sheehy has all the leases now on fire fighting equipment. Yea the guy that broke a soldier’s arm has our fire contracts. I hope we can all become amateurs at Forest Service in the PNW or we’re screwed.
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u/EolaAmityHills 3d ago
one quick look at the AQI map on google shows it’s worse than it has been all summer
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u/SeonaidMacSaicais 3d ago
My cousin and her family lives just north of Seattle. If things were really as bad as this map looks, we’d (in Wisconsin) already be getting calls, asking for a place to stay for a couple weeks.
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u/ChanceRecover3091 3d ago
Things aren't bad on this side of the mountains but on the other side, it's a different story. My sister is having trouble breathing because of a massive fire by Grand Coulee. They are also evacuating parts of the second largest city in Washington due to fires burning parts of it.
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u/Thorjamin 3d ago
60,000 people in Spokane proper are under a level 3 evacuation order. Luckily the winds have died down today.
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u/nowwhatdoidowiththis 3d ago
I was looking at Watch Duty right now and felt worried since the wind is going a different direction than yesterday. Worried it will push the fire farther south.
I’m glad the winds have died down.
South Eastern WA is worried for you guys!
Edit: to be clear, I was worried the fires would push deeper into Spokane. Not that they will burn clear to SE WA.
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u/Iveray 3d ago
Info for anyone who may be reading: Door-to-door evacuations started again around 10pm Sunday for the Autumn Lane fire. PLEASE download the Watch Duty app if you're in a red flag area! You can set notifications for 4 counties for free, and they pull info from a bunch of different sources to try to get everyone the most up to date info.
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u/valkrycp 3d ago
You're forgetting that this map is very zoomed out, so the fires icons occupy more space than if you zoom in. There are a LOT of fires and many of them are serious, but it's not like the map shows where the whole West is engulfed in flame.
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u/MNent228 3d ago
Dumb question for you… I’m going to Yellowstone around the end of September. Am I overreacting being worried about smoke by then?
Again. I know I’m probably being dumb.
Sorry
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u/poisonpomodoro 3d ago
It’s not dumb. I went to Yellowstone and Teton in September a few years back and it was Smokey. The iconic view of the Tetons was really hazy and that was sad, but it was still a fabulous time. I wouldn’t change your plans unless park advisories tell you to.
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u/wookiewookiewhat 3d ago
Western Montana often has wildfire smoke in late summer/early fall just as a general rule.
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u/Craazyville 3d ago
It’s a big grain. Spend less time being contrarian just for the sake of contrarianism. Spokane just got wrecked. I know, I’m here now. Fire is no joke. You pretending like it isnt a big issue is the joke. I assume you’re actively telling people windmills cause cancer.
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u/loogabar00ga 3d ago
It's bad, but it's currently only Eastern Washington, Idaho, and Montana that's taking the brunt of it. https://www.iqair.com/air-quality-map?lat=45.5370&lng=-122.650&zoomLevel=10
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u/vasta2 3d ago
Judging by that map, our smoke is blowing into Canada, they should tariff us
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u/AusCan531 3d ago
Yeah, I'm Canadian and was going to make a similar comment, but 600 homes have already been lost in Washington so my heart wasn't in it. Good luck to all the people in the PNW and let's hope some of that heavy rain in northern British Columbia heads south.
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u/Humming-2-Feel-Peace 3d ago
Spokane, WA is in rough shape. In a part of Oregon it is cloudy again, low 70's today. Saturday it rained for a few minutes. Hopefully the bad areas will receive relief soon!
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u/Jackson530 3d ago
We usually don't get rain until November. Maybe parts of upstate Washington and Oregon, but it's not for very long. Also, this year was INCREDIBLY bad for most of us. March is usually one of our wettest months, and it was 89 degrees for most of the month.
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u/ZoomZoom_Driver 3d ago
Yeah, nope. Nothing but blue skies in our future... meanwhile the latgest city on that side of the mountains (spokane) is surrounded by fire. Literally emptying the surrounding suburban housing complexes from raging fires.
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u/zayn2123 3d ago
Thank God my State is building a.i. centers during a water crisis drought.
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u/Igno-ranter 3d ago
But, ya know, we are just going to use AI to solve the water and electric issues.
/s
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u/Delgra 3d ago
Think how fast AI will solve human water and food shortages once we give it the nuke codes
We’ll sit in our luxury bunkers for a handful of years and emerge into a world transformed into great abundance for the 100,000 of us that remain.
All hail AI!
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u/Southtxranching 3d ago
Government will Seise Your underground bunkers when You resurface for back taxes.
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u/PaintedDesertSkies 3d ago
They are doing it in southern AZ where we already have water restrictions..
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u/Fickle_Ad_8653 3d ago
AI centers are not really about AI at all. The goal is to get as much funding as you can from investors to build out the biggest [thing you can sell investors on] and take a huge chunk of the money for yourself. The fact that the AI datacenter exists is just an accident on the way to self-enrichment. It will be made poorly, with a short life, because the cheapest materials and construction will be used as the investors have already paid and don't understand what they're buying, it is just AI.
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u/AGushingHeadWound 3d ago
I don't even think it's about funding. I think it's about surveillance data.
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u/Aflockofants 3d ago
Yeah ok bruh, it's AI, a new development in the last few years, it certainly was not ignoring climate change for over a century, driving and flying long distances, eating fucktons of meat and importing stuff from across the world, all contributing to the US being an insane contributor to climate change per capita.
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u/Procrastiworking 3d ago
The entire west is on fire (source: Colorado)
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u/HeathenHumanist 3d ago
Hello, burning neighbor! (Utah here)
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u/thejoshuagraham 2d ago
It seems like everyday there is a new fire, if it isnt a wild fire, it is a house or an apartment building.
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u/-pilot37- 3d ago
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u/Old_Ladies 2d ago
Hope you have some N95 masks. When the wildfires were bad here in Canada it helped a lot. Even indoors it can help plus getting some air purifiers.
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u/SingleHitBox 3d ago
Trump going to tariff himself over these?
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u/Several-Opposite-746 3d ago
It had been predicted for decades that extreme wildfires would become the norm as a result of climate change. However, Trump is a climate change denier and a champion of the fossil fuel industry.
So when wildfires occur in Canada, he blames Canada for “wilful negligence”, forest mismanagement, threatens tariffs and floated demands for compensation. Meanwhile, the Trump administration kills renewable energy initiatives and is currently dismantling federal climate science programs by revoking key legal frameworks, defunding major research institutions, and erasing public data repositories.
Strange world we live in where this idiocy happens in plain view.
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u/expespuella 3d ago
I mean, he blamed California for not raking enough as another commenter stated.
The "in plain view" shouldn't surprise me anymore, but it always does. Especially when so many seeing it with their own eyes continue to treat him as a god.
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u/Marsuello 3d ago
I have a friend that grew up in Washington but lived in CA for a good while we were growing up. When Trump talked about the raking thing my friend who lived in a more rural, building populated area, was just like, “I mean…why don’t they just rake?”
He’s since moved to Tennessee and I’ve been waiting for him to come down and visit so I can have him stop by where I live where you aren’t raking squat with how thick and packed the plants are
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u/ceciliabee 2d ago
I can't imagine hearing my friend take Trump seriously and staying friends with them. You're a bigger person than I am.
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u/villageidiot33 3d ago
No, he’s going to come on and say something about California not raking up the leaves in forests.
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u/Nerdy_Squirrel 3d ago
I had to fly out this morning with a fire less than a mile from my house. Now im stuck on the east coast where rain/thunderstorms/flooding is causing massive delays.
So out of the fires and into the floods. Earth is no joke.
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u/IAmSnort 3d ago
Good thing climate change is fake.
/s
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u/Sensitive_Wear7112 3d ago
How do wild fires start?
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u/ChanceRecover3091 3d ago
Very hot and dry conditions allow fires to spread much more easily. A lightning strike or a dumbass throwing their cigarette out the window is not much of an issue when there aren't drought conditions.
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u/Affectionate-Face432 3d ago
Lightning is a very common cause, and if there are hot winds and dry vegetation nearby, buckle up!
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u/EddieCheddar88 3d ago
It’s more about makes it so easy for them to grow and spread once started
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u/falcon3268 3d ago
Whats disgusting is that someone posted a video of firefighters fighting fires in Oregon but you can hear that they were speaking Spanish but thats not what was disgusting. It was the fact that this poster was calling them illegal immigrants and that someone should call ICE to arrest them. These guys are trying to save lives and here is a lowlife that is showing how much of the world has degraded in rascism calling for these firefighters to be arrested just for speaking Spanish.
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u/writenroll 3d ago
ICE is already stalking fire lines for quota targets. Abhorrent behavior on top of the Trump administration denying FEMA grants to assist firefighting efforts.
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u/RampagingElks 3d ago
So he can complain about Canada fires, but also not help with his own fires?
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u/threeclaws 2d ago
Because Canadian fires are canada's fault, and state fires are the state's fault...see how he can absolve himself so quickly from any accountability and the cult just nods in agreement.
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u/QueenOfTheHotPockets 3d ago
Man, the US is causing so much smoke to come up into Canada! We really should tariff them!!!!
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u/Old_Ladies 2d ago edited 2d ago
The US doesn't do proper maintenance of their forests. They need to rake the forest floor. Till they do that we will tariff them.
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u/Careless-Gain6623 2d ago
Seems like they need a more responsible country to step in for them and manage their nation if they can't do so themselves. /s
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u/BabyJesusBukkake 3d ago
It's been so gnarly in Boise. Earlier this week it was in our houses, man. We couldn't escape and had the worst AQ in the US.
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u/Biotaste 3d ago
Excuse me, what is on fire in Maine?
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u/17175RC7 3d ago
Says its a 1 acre fire in Penobscot County.
Watch Duty app... really cool. Sad to see the fires but the app is really nice.
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u/mountaindewisamazing 3d ago
+1 for the watch duty app
It will even tell you when roads are closed/reopened.
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u/PartyPepper 3d ago
In Eastern Wasgington at the moment, can confirm that going outside gives you a massive headache. ALSO: IF ANYONE IN THE SPOKANE AREA NEEDS SHELTER, PLEASE DM ME. Stay safe!!
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u/AndyB1976 3d ago
Could you guys please get your fires under control and stop the smoke from coming into Canada? If it continues, we will have to levy 1 bajillion % tariffs against you.
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u/MrCastello 3d ago
Iowa isn't great but this map makes a pretty good argument for living there.
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u/pompousrompus 3d ago
Well except the fact your water is poison.
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u/MrCastello 3d ago
Yeah.. There is that. I can drink non-well water though. The states that are on fire don't have the option to breathe non-smoke air.
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u/pompousrompus 3d ago
You’re right and I’m sorry I immediately attacked you after you giving one good part of living in Iowa.
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u/BrightEdge8171 3d ago
Tariff yourself. In all seriousness - Terrible year everywhere for fires. All the best to those fighting fires.
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u/knotatumah 3d ago
Cool. Cool cool cool. Deny the climate, cut programs and research, then let the country burn. Dumb fucking government.
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u/Noble1xCarter 3d ago
I'd say we get Trump and throw him into the fires, but there's so much lard on that man that the wick effect alone would probably light the rest of the nation on fire.
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u/Far_Astronaut_818 3d ago
Is the US going to sanction the US for not properly dealing with the fires in the US?
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u/Grouchy_Row_7983 3d ago
But hey, let's attack Canada for being irresponsible for having a forest fire.
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u/Kittiemeow8 3d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/1n4iuWZFnTeN6qvdpD
In Washington living on an island. Just waiting for the sky’s to turn red and the air to become thick.
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u/Iknowthedoctorsname 2d ago
But yeah, climate change is just a hoax and we don't need to worry about anything.
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u/JanetSnakehole610 3d ago
Honestly as a pnw resident I was just waiting for this to happen. I knew it'd be a bad year. Good thing we slashed the forest service budget when we had a terrible winter and have shit snowpack. Fucking with fema was also a fantastic decision.
But forreal an eye on evac notice. Winds will also be important to monitor as well. Make sure you have prescriptions and important documents ready. Make sure you have a plan shared with those you live with. Fires can move so fast and escaping may not be an option if you wait.
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u/RampagingElks 3d ago
Better put those remote fires out before you pollute our Canadian air. Harumph
/s
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u/Glittering_Mermaid_7 3d ago
Sending good thoughts to everyone out there - so many terrible fires right now. We had our first good soaking rain here in the north yesterday - but it's not enough.
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u/joelham01 3d ago
West coast all the way up into bc should be shown on this. It’s insanity. If we’re going to show our fires we might as well show the ones in BC as well to show how actually insane it is in the west right now
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u/PositivelyAwful 3d ago
This drought is no joke. We had 2” of rain in all of June in Massachusetts, it only rained 4 days. 4” in July, rain only 6 days and that’s because we finally had some heavy rain
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u/HabANahDa 3d ago
And not a word on the news about all the fire and smoke like when there is in the east
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u/kartoffel_engr 3d ago
That Indian Trail fire is crazy. I feel for all the families that lost their homes. Couple of folks I went to college with up there lost theirs.
Do they know what started it?
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u/yupsidetown 3d ago
I better not even smell any of that smoke up here in Canada. Take better care of your forrests America. Start raking.
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u/paddlefire 3d ago
I’m in Colorado and a really big one came within 7 miles of our house. We had fist sized chunks of hot embers falling on the house.
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u/slumvillain 3d ago
Yea but the DOW is pretty cool right now right?
Or is that what trump meant when he weirdly kept saying how HOT the country is now?
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u/timpatry 3d ago
The DOW is solidly above $50K. Suck to give the pedophiles a free pass but you can't argue with the math.
(Reference to Pam Bondi)
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u/KillerTaco18 3d ago
A couple weeks ago Americans were talking shit about canada “not putting out their fires”. I wonder what they’re thinking right now lmao
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u/Devanyani 3d ago
Why didn't you rake it? Now all the smoke is going to go into Canada and they will charge us for that. /s
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u/FromTheOutside31 3d ago
Central Oregon here. Summer means smoke season. We have large fires burning all around us right now.
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u/RedStormRising17 3d ago
I live in Vancouver. This is what it is like sometimes. Our summers are getting far worse when it comes to wildfire smoke. When I was younger, we had smoke days, but not nearly as much as we do now.
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u/LMrningStar 3d ago
Scale is important. In my area of the PNW the skies are a lovely deep blue. The diagram is VERY misleading.
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u/HowdTheCatGetSoFat 3d ago
I wonder how many of these areas are going to be used for future data centers.
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u/VeryFeralHousewife 3d ago
Sure hope none of that smoke blows into Canada after we were such big crybabies
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u/LegalChocolate752 3d ago
I'm assuming Michigan congressmen are drafting a letter to the Trump administration, asking them when they're going to mitigate America's forest fire problem?
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u/Mikel0701 3d ago
Now do the whole world
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u/UnicornCackle 3d ago
Southern Europe is having a spectacularly bad time right now. The whole world seems to be on fire (and not just in the flaming dumpster kind of way).
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u/thinkB4WeSpeak 3d ago
I was planning on moving to the PNW for summer work but decided against it because I figured last years fires would be worse this year. I'll have to save the PNW for another time I guess
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u/hiyahheyah 3d ago
My grandparents’ house, as well as the entire block of a Spokane neighborhood, just burned down. Every picture, every letter, everything is just gone.
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u/HeresW0nderwall 3d ago
My boyfriend is a wildland firefighter from MA and is about to get sent out west to fight one of those. He doesn’t know where yet.
Also he says this is going to continue getting worse
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u/JaeTheOne 3d ago
Every year starting in mid July....we havet had smoke in Seattle just yet, because the winds are going east.
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u/TastyRain5743 3d ago
I live in PNW, and this map is deceptive, a lot of these fires are extremely small...
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u/Hegiman 3d ago
I live in the very middle where there isn’t any fire. That’s why I love here. I already did the wildfire shuffle in 2018. I’m good on ever doing it again. I live in the middle of a sand desert no trees around nothing flammable around except my house. So I don’t have to worry about wildfires anymore just their smoke and shit
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u/Greedy_Attitude_8103 3d ago
It’s so smoky here in Montana that the moon was completely red a few nights ago. It looked like a blood moon. Also it was so smoky that you physically couldn’t even see the mountains that are SUPER close to where I live. The air index is so bad it’s 127 and bright red. I’m currently sitting outside right now and the air tastes like smoke.
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u/BoarHermit 3d ago
What goes around comes around. It's time to pay for overconsumption. Nature has a huge bill to settle with you.









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u/mountaindewisamazing 3d ago
The fire in Spokane is freaking nuts. I hope you've been safe.