Holy smoke, is it smoky around here today - and I don't mean from pipe weed!
Woke up to a noticeable odor of smoke, the kind burning wood has. After sunrise, a palpable pall of smoke hung over our valley. In fact it was so bad it looked like rolls of a thick fog, and succeeded in partially blotting out the sunshine! Also left signs of ash and soot on my car.
There's some big wildfires just on the east side of the Cascades right now, and apparently the smoke has drifted west and settled in our valley just below the foothills. All day at the brewery it smelled of smoke. Not good to be breathing that in.
Also heard a report of a brush fire 15 miles north of the brewery, but that they expected to have it contained in a few hours. Very concerning, including and especially since WA state is tinder dry right now and the threat of forest fires is very real. Even now in the afternoon, walking out to the mailbox is like walking through a camp fire area. Strong smoke everywhere!
And the smoke is holding in the heat so it doesn't cool down at night. The daytime temps have been excessively hot lately, in the mid-90s. Most folks around here have no central air-conditioning.
Hopefully we'll get some relief from this later this week as a low pressure system is supposed to bring in cooler winds from the Pacific ocean, with the possibility of light rain/drizzle. That should help knock this down.
No Cheers,
RR
️ is in the forecast. Let's hope the Neuse river does not peak again. 
