There's no good timing for these fires but now just seems really bad. Can't socialize inside because of Covid, can't socialize outdoors because of smoke. Tough time to be in the West Coast.
That part, to me, is the least frustrating. I'm rather tired of having hot indoors because the PNW doesn't have air conditioning as standard in most of the apartments...
It hasn't gone under 81 in my apartment since this whole smoke started; and my office tends to sit at 83 on the ground.
> the PNW doesn't have air conditioning as standard in most of the apartments
That's because it wasn't necessary until the last 10 years or so. 90 degree days were uncommon and night temps would dip low enough to cool most places in the evening through the next morning.
It's still not really. We had 2 days over 90 in seattle, one in the smoke. And a few days at 88-89, in total I had 4 days where I turned on the window unit in my home office. If I wasnt on a deep coding problem I'd be out in the yard. 4 days a year isn't really justification for aircon
If you live by a busy/noisy street as many apartments are, it's necessary. I grew up in the PNW in the suburbs and living more in the city in apartments the need for AC is much more real.
* any apartment not facing North is going to be experiencing the sun for a LOT of the day during the summer
* most apartments are only facing a single direction, so you can't get through-air to go from one side of the house to the other to pull the cool air from the "not with sun" side.
* Washington houses love big windows that seem to take up a whole side, so it's just heat from the sun all. day. long.
* many apartments are on the second floor, or higher, so heat naturally rises and there is a real consequence to that.
In the winter, I've had to open my window to keep my old apartment under 80 while on the 4th floor with no heaters running (aside from my desktop computer and other normal electronics).
I'm not looking forward to this winter. The pandemic so far has been bearable for me because I can go outside and work in the yard and enjoy the nice weather.
(Please don't take this as making light of the situation in the PNW. I realize it's awful and don't wish it on anyone.)
I can think of one, small silver lining to these fires:
I recently read that Asian giant hornets had recently been found in the PNW, and if they weren't wiped out in a few years they'd become permanently entrenched. I find that prospect absolutely terrifying, so perhaps we'll get lucky and these fires will wipe them out.
Highly unlikely. Afaik there haven't been fires where the hornets have been. Plus, these things came across the damn ocean somehow. They are more than capable of flying away to escape a fire.
