Smoke from Asian fires wafts across ocean to North Olympic Peninsula

Published 7:43 pm Monday, July 9, 2012

HAZE IN THE AIR over the North Olympic Peninsula is being blamed on smoke wafting across the Pacific from huge wildfires in Asia.

The smoke rising in Asia — from fires in border areas of China and Siberia — soars thousands of feet in the atmosphere and then is carried here by air currents before being forced closer to ground level by the same high pressure system that brought us the warm, clear weather this past weekend.

Presumably the smoke could worsen air quality in the region, but there were no immediate reports from officials on that possibility.

Big wildfires are also burning in Colorado, but weather experts say no smoke from those is being carried here with the current weather patterns.

Read more about this at the Cliff Mass Weather Blog: http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/ (see Saturday’s report; scroll down from Monday’s blog).