PORT ANGELES — Smoke from British Columbia wildfires is beginning to come into the North Olympic Peninsula, but should be cleared by Thursday.
That’s according to Cliff Mass, Seattle meteorologist.
“Surface air quality ALWAYS declines on July 4th from all the fireworks,” Mass said in his blog posted Sunday. “This year the miasma will be “enhanced” by smoke from British Columbia,” where wildfires have broken out along with others throughout the country.
“The good news is that the upper-level flow will change (more westerly) by Thursday and will sweep the smoke away from our region,” Mass predicted.
Air quality on the Peninsula ranged from good to moderate on Tuesday.
Elsewhere, a weekend wildfire along the Columbia River in southwestern Washington was at 533 acres on Tuesday after prompting evacuations and burning structures since it began on Sunday, according to authorities.
Inciweb, a web information management system provided by the United States Forest Service, said that the fire had been 5 percent contained as of Tuesday.
Skamania County firefighters responded to reports of the wildfire on Sunday at 11:19 a.m. near state Highway 14 in Underwood, an unincorporated community across the river from Hood River, Ore., and about 2 miles west of White Salmon in Washington state.
Hot, windy conditions caused the Tunnel 5 fire to spread rapidly in what authorities called extreme terrain through Sunday afternoon. Authorities issued an evacuation notice for everyone in a 2-mile radius around Cook Underhill Road, where crews were engaged in active firefighting. A shelter was set up at Skamania County Fairgrounds in Stevenson, Wash.
About 1,000 residents have been affected by the fire and evacuation orders, Heather Appelhof, a Southeast Washington Interagency Incident Management Team spokesperson, told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Monday.
The fire’s cause is under investigation, authorities said.
Highway 14 was closed between mile markers 53-63 due to fire activity Tuesday. A temporary flight restriction was in place over Tunnel Five Fire area. Level 3 “go now” evacuations had been issued for a two-mile radius around the fire.
