Unhealthy West Coast fire air descends on Boston area

By adamg on Mon, 07/26/2021 - 3:27pm

The state Department of Environmental Protection sounds the alert for smoke from fires in the western US and Canada:

Smoke plume from US & Canadian #wildfires is again causing fine particle levels to elevate into Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups range today in all MA counties except Plymouth, Bristol & the Cape & Islands.

State pollution map.

Building smokey haze this afternoon. You can smell it. @universalhub @ericfisher @maureencaught @bostonNHP. pic.twitter.com/P0Yo40Yrku

— BostonTimelapse (@BostonTimelaps1) July 26, 2021

Look for the worst to settle in around 4 p.m.

If you're in Boston, this smoke doesn't get impressively thick until about an hour from now. Visible satellite shows really thick stuff moving in from the west. https://t.co/rRIsskbZ9h

— Jay Kenney (@JayWHDH) July 26, 2021

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Comments

A-ha

By Will LaTulippe
Mon, 07/26/2021 - 4:17pm

I thought I smelled burning wood when I arrived at Castle Island.

Plastic

By cybah
Mon, 07/26/2021 - 4:19pm

It stinks like burning plastic.

I know its wild fires but we had this last week and it didnt smell like plastic. Just wet campfire.

I was wondering what the

By Anon
Mon, 07/26/2021 - 4:27pm

I was wondering what the smell was, thought something was burning on the stove.

agreed

By Meow Mix
Mon, 07/26/2021 - 5:32pm

If it's not plastic it's something else, but it definitely smells like something beyond wood.

I’ve got a different smell

By Waquiot
Mon, 07/26/2021 - 5:55pm

If you’ve ever smelled an electrical fire, I’m getting a faint scent of that.

Acrid

By SwirlyGrrl
Tue, 07/27/2021 - 1:58pm

I think the word of choice is "acrid".

The only thing that I can think to compare it to is when I toured a lab doing research on wood smoke pollution. It smells like aged wood smoke particulate - stuff sampled from a wood smoke rig and aged in conditions simulating atmospheric transport.

Which is what it is. Those conditions are cold and oxygen poor, which contributes to the weirdness of the smell.

It kind of smells like massive wild fire aftermath, too, but lacks the rotting charred meat and melted household goods odor components.

Weed

By SamWack
Mon, 07/26/2021 - 6:25pm

I though someone had been smoking weed in my car. Since no one has been in my car recently except me, and I didn't remember smoking any weed, I found this disturbing.

Hopefully tonight's storm

By Rob
Tue, 07/27/2021 - 7:44pm

Hopefully tonight's storm washes the air a bit.