The Olympic Mountains were obscured in a haze, and air in some areas of the North Olympic Peninsula smelled of smoke over the weekend, a result of wildfires burning on hundreds of thousands of acres of grass and timber in Eastern Washington.
Clallam County emergency dispatchers fielded dozens of reports Saturday that the air smelled and looked smoky.
An offshore flow brought the smoke from the fires westward Saturday, blanketing Western Washington with haze, but the winds reversed Sunday afternoon and were expected to clear out most of the smoke, said Logan Johnson, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Seattle.
Brian Smith, Port Angeles deputy police chief, said people should ascertain something nearby actually is on fire before they call 9-1-1 to report smoke or its smell.
“None of them are actual fires,” Smith said of the 20 to 30 reports he said had been logged Saturday by Clallam County Fire District No. 2 and the Port Angeles Fire Department, with another 10 or more reports to Clallam County Fire District
No. 3.
“We want to make people aware that calling the fire department or 9-1-1 in these circumstances is not wise,” Smith said.
Port Angeles air quality measurements Saturday reached “unhealthy for sensitive groups,” while the Port Townsend area monitor showed smoke pollution created “moderate” air quality impacts, according to Olympic Region Clean Air Agency (ORCAA) monitors in those communities.
ORCAA has three air quality monitoring stations on the North Olympic Peninsula.
As of 5 p.m. Sunday, the North Olympic Peninsula’s monitoring stations showed the worst air quality advisory values for the weekend were:
■ Port Angeles at Stevens Middle School — 106 at 5 p.m. Saturday.
■ Port Townsend on San Juan Avenue — 66 at 6 p.m. Saturday.
■ Cheeka Peak near Neah Bay — 39 at 3 a.m. Sunday.
Air quality advisory categories are:
■ Good — 0-49.
■ Moderate — 50-99.
■ Unhealthy for sensitive groups — 100-149.
■ Unhealthy — 150-199.
■ Very unhealthy — 200-249.
■ Hazardous — 250 and above.
Current ORCAA air quality scores can be monitored online at www.orcaa.org.
Some smoke was expected to remain in the area as long as several fires in the Olympic Mountains continued to burn.
■ The Paradise Fire, about 12 miles inside Olympic National Park boundaries in the Queets River valley, had burned 2,599 acres as of Sunday morning.
The Paradise Fire was more active over the weekend and was putting out smoke as unburned areas in the interior of the fire’s footprint blazed up in the warm, dry conditions, fire managers said in Sunday’s fire conditions update.
■ The Hungry Fire is located near the Dosewallips area in the area of Olympic National Park’s Dose Forks Campground, a backcountry area about 16 miles northwest of Brinnon.
The one-quarter acre fire was producing more smoke from burns within established boundaries, but there was no additional fire growth.
Two fires of the Gold Cabin Complex in Olympic National Forest sparked by a lightning storm Aug. 12.
The Gold and Cabin Creek fires were renamed the Gold Cabin Complex as a single managed fire system.
■ The Gold Fire, located near Bon Jon Pass 10 miles south of Blyn, remained at about 10 acres and was not active as of Sunday morning.
■ The Cabin Creek Fire, 3 miles northeast of Lena Lake and the Hamma Hamma campgrounds, remained at 8 acres.
The fire produced some smoke from the interior Saturday and into Sunday morning but remains contained within fire lines.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
PDN reporter James Casey contributed to this report.
