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smoke from canadian fires are unbearable today

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allen levine

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new york city burbs
amazing here on southern long island the air is full of smoke and everything outdoors has been cancelled. its burning our eyes, and tough to breathe out here. never experienced anything like this. the moon is glowing orange to red, there is fog, but its really smoke, and today is alot worse then yesterday.
I had to come in from garage, been making pvc birds and just couildnt take the smoke. wow.
 
Ah yes the yearly several months of "can't see the sun from wildfire smoke" we've had on the West side for years hits the east coast.

My biggest suggestion is stay inside as much as possible, avoid opening doors/windows unless necessary (every instance lets in another whiff of smoke). If you have anyway to create "air locks" where you have multiple doors before the main house use that (hang a sheet over the entry way even helps.. I usually use the garage entrance which provides an extra door layer). Masks / decent respirators DO help if you have to go outside, as a woodworker we should mostly have some of these anyway. Antihistamine Visine Eye Drops and Nasonex or similar products can help with the irritation (but I'd stay inside rather than going to the store on a 50/50 choice.. but if you're at the store already..)

For clearing air inside the house variants of these DIY air filters are basically yearly builds on the west coast and they do 100% help:

How to make a box fan filter to clean indoor air of smoke | Interdisciplinary Center for Exposures, Diseases, Genomics and Environment

As wildfire smoke fills the sky up and down the west coast, experts advise people to stay inside to avoid the
deohs.washington.edu deohs.washington.edu


I make the square box kind with 2 or 3 filters with cardboard bottom/sides and filter front/top have the fan pushing sideways towards them and put it in the hallway so it sort of circulates through the house more.

Also replace your furnace filter and turn the fan for that on to pull some of the smoke out of the air.

Make sure windows & doors are closed as well. If you see leakage around them don't be afraid to temporarily tape it all shut.

A couple years ago we bought a https://www.blueair.com/us/blog-all/how-to-choose.html which is more or less the same thing in a more convenient and slightly higher airflow pre-built package.... During peak wildfire season these are, of course, unobtanium because of the huge demand.
 
We have had two BlueAir 211 Air Purifiers since spring of 2021. Could not live without them, especially when the AQI gets over 300. So far though, it has been a good year with the only wildfire smoke from controlled fires and they are for the most part, over with them for the season.

I believe there are some wildfires North of us in B.C. but have not noticed any smoke down here from them.
 
Supposedly we are getting some of this Canadian smoke here in the Carolinas according to the weather people who have issued a RED ALERT. A RED ALERT means instant death if you do not stay at home. However the same station issuing the RED ALERT instant death warning also carried a story about how all of the Raleigh pools are open and showed kids swarming all over them. The people in charge of the pools were switching out life guards every hour so they wouldn't die and leave the swarming kids unattended. Another story showed men in the building trades working outside in RED ALERT conditions and were still living however they were not expected to make it through the night.

I have not been able to detect the smoke here.

That said, I agree with Allen about how disagreeable heavy smoke can be. Several times in the time we have lived here we have been subjected to the foul smelling smoke from peat bog fires caused by lightning strikes. The smoke and stench from those fires was truly horrible and seemed to be able to make its way into the house no matter what you did. It was particularly objectionable in the mornings when there were heavy dews. Burning peat is absolutely stinky.
 
Ted Calver said:
We're getting it down here in VA too.
Unhealthy
PM2.5 NowCast AQI: 196
As Of 06/07/2023 4pm EDT

Not good for asthma sufferers.
Click to expand...
It's getting close to 300 right now
It's been going up steadily today
Was like 180 something yeaterday
A lot of school districts are closing or going remote
My guess is anyone who can keep kids home tomorrow will
Did I hear the news correctly
9 million acres on fire?
 
Allen I have no idea of how large this fire is in Canada. Also have heard of some large fires in Michigan. Not having air conditioning, when it kicks on does it put the smoke smell in your home?
 
Jonathan Shively said:
Allen I have no idea of how large this fire is in Canada. Also have heard of some large fires in Michigan. Not having air conditioning, when it kicks on does it put the smoke smell in your home?
Click to expand...
With ac on we don't smell smoke had both kids over this morning didn't take them
Outside
My 2 and a half yo was going batso crazy being locked in house and not seeing rain or cold didn't understand
 
It is a bad situation for sure, and still very early in the season. Reuters had a good summary of the situation today, much more accurate than the CBS News piece where they confused Ottawa and Ontario 🙄

www.reuters.com

Where are the Canada wildfires and are they under control?

Wildfires are common in Canada's western provinces, but this year the eastern provinces of Nova Scotia, Quebec and parts of Ontario are also reeling from out of control wildfires, sending plumes across much of New York and forcing authorities to issue air quality alerts for Toronto and Ottawa.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com

In true Canadian fashion, I’ll just say “sorry” for the smoke and hope it clears soon. We’d really prefer that our forest resources were not burning up.

If anything, we are at least learning about fire science and how complex a problem it is. A friend posted a little video of a spot where they were trying to dig the fire out of the ground in the big Shelburne County fire. It was so hot the water in the hole appeared to be boiling! This is after more than six inches of rain across Nova Scotia in the past week. Our son said next will be frogs and locusts. If you see four horsemen, run!!!
 
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It was better today so I'm hoping we can open the windows tomorrow
My grandson is obsessed with gardeners mowing and blowing leaves
I bought him a little leaf blower so he can work with daddy to do the lawn
It was very difficult keeping him in the house today
He walked around my house for 3 hours with his leaf blower and headphones
He was very unhappy not understanding why I wouldn't take him outside
 

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