A SURPRISE SMELL!

        I woke up 3 or 4 times last night and a couple of times I noticed a different smell. It was  pleasant smell but I couldn't identify it.

      When I got up this morning and my head cleared up, I thought about the smell. Then it hit me! I was smelling fresh air with no smoke. So all summer we've had smoke from the fires. It's a long time since we didn't have smoke. 

     We still have many fires but no big ones. Fall is a fire season so it won't be long until there's more smoke.

    You don't realize what the smoke is doing to you. I'm outside most of the time. I don't think you beat the smoke by staying in the house with doors and windows closed.

    The people in Jasper were allowed back in the town 2 or 3 days ago. The ones who lost everything had a look at the damage and then there's nothing more they can do until insurance is settled. The other people have lots of cleaning to do. Deep freezes and fridges have t be thrown away as the power was off. The caretakers were working in the school for the summer. They had windows open and had to leave quickly so the windows were left open so the school is a mess. The kids may be bussed to Hinton for a while.

    So that's enough on fire for a while. 

SMOKE!

       I live in the province of Alberta , Canada. The province to my west is British Columbia (B.C). BC is mostly a mountainous forested area. This summer they have had many wild fires...about 600. These fires are very difficult to control for a number of reasons. First , it's been very dry so the bush and under growth are dry. Second, the bush here is classified as having a high amount of fuel. That is material that burns easily and hard. Many more people are actually living in the forest so there are more people to start fires.

       The fires are difficult to fight because there is so much smoke. Airplanes and helicopters can not get in to fire areas. The terrain is mountainous.  In the summer they tend to get thunderstorms which start many of the fires. Steady rains occur in the winter. Even in the winter some areas remain dry. 

     So you can see the reason for my topic. In July we could call it haze. As the fires continued and got larger we go smoke and at times dense smoke. We've had air quality from 7 to 10. People who may have issues are advised to stay in.

      We've just finished a fifteen day period of smoke. We did not see blue sky or clouds. The sun was very orange and sometimes difficult to see. 

       To complicate matters, there have been wildfires in Alaska, Washington , Oregon and California.

      Now we did cheer for three days as the wind changed and the smoke ended up in western BC, Bellingham, Seattle and area. 

     I've been able to keep active. My biggest problem is with the heat. 

WILD FIRES

      At the present time there are many wildfires in British Columbia, the province to the west of us. At one time they said there were 176 fires burning. It's been hot, dry and windy... so perfect  conditions for wildfires.

      About 40000 people have been ordered out of their homes and 15000 more are on standby. Some homes and property have been burned.

      The area ranges from heavy bush to open range land and then there are farming areas in the river valleys. 

      So it's challenging for firefighter and residents. There's no relief in sight at the present time.

      Now I live about  600 km from the fires. We've had westerly winds so the smoke has blown into Alberta. Air quality rates from 3 -10. Now the smoke is quite high.

      I live midway between Edmonton and Calgary.






     I took these photos from my yard just a few minutes before 7:00 PM. The sky is not cloudy. The dullness is caused by smoke. I was just lucky to get the sun in my photo as you couldn't see it on the viewfinder.