Wildfires out west send smoke to North Carolina

By Aimee Wilmoth, WRAL weather executive producer

Did you notice a haze to the sky or perhaps smell a little bit of smoke in the air outside? Believe it or not, smoke from wildfires over the western part of the United States is traveling all the way across the country and has made it to North Carolina.

There are currently 80 large wildfires spanning 13 states out west. The largest fire is the Bootleg Fire in Oregon, burning more than 350,000 acres so far and only 30% contained.

The fire season has grown longer and more extreme in recent years. As the globe continues to warm and our dry spells become more extreme out west, this trend is likely to continue. Sixty-four percent of the western United States is currently experiencing an extreme drought. Twenty-eight percent of the western U.S. is in an exceptional drought.

Normally, western wildfires are a news story to us and don’t have any major impacts on North Carolina, but our current jetstream pattern is sending some of the smoke from those fires to our part of the country.

As of now, the air quality index for central North Carolina is moderate.

Most of you will be fine doing outdoor activities. If you are sensitive to particle pollution, you might want to reduce the amount of time you spend outdoors, especially in our northern counties.