Boundary Waters Quetico Forum :: Trip Planning Forum :: Air quality concerns for last week of August in Saganaga area?
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LittleRiver |
davidsos: "...check out...fire.airnow.gov..." Thanks, that's one of the sites I've been monitoring. It's a great resource. The air quality index has been reading about the same here at home as it has in the upper Gunflint area -- despite the fact there are no wildfires anywhere near my home. That has to be because wind patterns are keeping the bulk of the Quetico wildfire smoke away from the BW (?). If I could have any small bit of confidence that the current pattern will hold, then I would say the trip is a go. But if a shift of the wind is all it will take to make the trip a bust, then it's better to make the no-go call. Does anyone have any insight (or links to helpful resources) on the probability of the current wind pattern holding through August? |
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Kalvan |
No one in our group was sensitive to the smoke but really only had one morning where it was noticable. |
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LittleRiver |
I've been following the fire & air quality situation closely for weeks, checking all the available resources daily (forums, infrared satellite imagery, SNF announcements, Ontario fire maps, MN air quality reports, etc.). It'll be a 2,600 mile round trip for us to get there, so we want to have good chances of a positive outcome before we leave home. Within the next few days I have to make a go/no-go decision on this trip (to give us time to switch to another destination). The biggest concern right now is air quality. I have mild asthma. I've never had a full blown asthmatic attack. I don't take any daily medications for it. I do keep rescue inhalers around, and use them on the rare occasion my lungs start feeling tight. The quandary has been that the air quality index for the Saganaga area has been pretty good, especially considering the number of fires in Ontario. As of today, the air quality is in the green. But it seems that all it would take would be a shift in wind direction to change that drastically. If you have any recent experience with the area, or any other thoughts on this, I'd certainly love to hear them. |
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Gaidin53 |
Ryan |
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LittleRiver |
marsonite: "Over a month out? It's anyone's guess. Long range forecasting just isn't that good...." I understand that. I'm not expecting anyone (even weather professionals) to provide an accurate detailed weather forecast for the end of August. What I'm looking for is some local expertise on the wind patterns. Here at home our weather pretty much always comes out of the W/NW, unless there is a big storm in the gulf of Mexico that disrupts the normal pattern. Gauging by the direction of spread of the the Quetico fires, and the relatively good air quality in the Gunflint area despite large wildfires nearby, it looks like the wind has been blowing from the S/SE? Is that the normal pattern? If not, has anyone heard anything about when the pattern might change? |
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marsonite |
I have a trip planned for mid August, and I'm just going to see as it gets closer. I have a plan b ready. |
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davidsos |
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Banksiana |
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straighthairedcurly |
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LittleRiver |
I cancelled our BW trip. It was just too much of a crap shoot, being that all it would take would be a change in wind direction to possibly cut our trip short (or worse yet, cause us to bail after we made the long drive there, but before hitting the water). To go on the trip would sort of be running an experiment to see if a week of 24hr exposure to poor air would give me my first full blown asthmatic attack. Not smart, especially in a backcountry setting. Another reason we cancelled is that it's just not a good year: low water, campfire ban, chance of permit cancellation due to more fires popping up, etc. When I go to the BW I want to enjoy fresh fish smoked over a campfire. When I go to see a waterfall I want to see a waterfall, not a sad trickle. We're instead going to the lower section of the Buffalo National River for this year's trip. It's going to be warm, but we're already acclimated to that. |
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KawnipiKid |
Surface winds can carry smoke for a shorter but still significant distance depending on the weather. They carry it in the local "winds out of the" direction. These conditions can get bad or better much more quickly. They can still affect breathing a significant distance from the fire, 200 miles or more, depending on the air mass, pressure and upper level weather above. You are more likely to smell smoke or be in outright smoky conditions. This is all affected by other factors such as the fire size and how much uplift is moving the smoke from low to high levels before it goes very far laterally. With closer fires, I plan to use a weather radio and look at multiday wind forecasts (e.g., NWS Hourly Weather Forecast Graph for Ely) just before the trip. |
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Gaidin53 |
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