Lower Sugarloaf Fire Prompts A Return To Smoky Skies Over NCW

A familiar look has returned to the skies over North Central Washington as summer winds down.

After a weekend that saw a diaphanous veil of widespread haze over the region, the blue canvas that would ordinarily be present during the sunny days of early September has been exchanged for a thick gauze of grayish-white smoke above communities in the Wenatchee, Upper Wenatchee, and Entiat Valleys.

The obvious presence of smoke in the lower atmosphere has also been accompanied by reports of fine ash and soot falling from the skies over North Central Washington, as well as evidence of its piling up on the hoods and windshields of cars and other stationary objects around the region.

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The tangle of blight is being blamed largely on the Lower Sugarloaf Fire, which is burning on the Wenatchee River Ranger District in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest about 17 miles west-northwest of Entiat.

The blaze, which was touched off by lightning last weekend, has quickly ballooned to over 2,500 acres in just a few days under scorching temperatures which have prompted an Extreme Heat Warning for Central Washington this week.

Although conditions in places like Wenatchee, Leavenworth, and Entiat might seem to be quite unhealthy, the Washington State Department of Ecology's air quality monitoring stations are reporting indexes in the "Moderate" to "Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups" range for all of North Central Washington.

Despite the region's current borderline status, health officials are still advising people to take every necessary precaution to prevent irritation or illness due to the worsening air quality by remaining indoors whenever possible, limiting their exposure to the outside, running air purifiers in their homes - if possible, and making certain the recirculate setting is engaged on the air conditioning units in their homes and cars.

The National Weather Service office in Spokane is currently forecasting for better air quality over the region by Friday, but that will also depend on what activity occurs with the Lower Sugarloaf Fire in the coming days.