USA Northeast » Smoke or Rain

Since my return from the edge of the Praire last weekend, we've had two weather options: air quality health warnings due to Hudson Bay region forest fire smoke, or rain. The smoke irritates your eyes and sometimes gives you a headache. Thus, riding or working outside kind of sucks. Rain, of course, is rain.

In either case, I'm not riding, but prefer the rain option

One year out west we had heavy smoke for several days and we ended up completely changing our trip plans to get out of the smoke.
After a couple days being out in the smoke we couldn't take any more.

A couple years ago we had heavy smoke for half a day in Colorado. It wasn't long enough to bother our breathing but we could not see well enough to pass cars.

Attached are a couple of photos that I took of my street in Pacifica, CA, taken on September 9, 2020 at noon. The street lights were still on at the time. Also attached is a photo from our city newspaper showing the Pacifica coastline taken on the same day. Heavy smoke from wildfires is nasty stuff. I sure wouldn't want to ride in it.

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😯Not good.🔥 They are saying it could effect our weather this side of the Pond too. Watch out for some colourful sunsets.

2003 we were in the Missoula Montana area on a Edellweis Tour that came with our new bike purchases.
Fires were bad that year. When we went over the Going-to-the-Sun Road about all we saw was the road and they closed it shortly after we went over the pass.
Here's a picture of one of the lakes in Glacier National Park.
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Forest Service wild fire camp east of Lolo Pass.
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This spring, my sister relocated from Reno NV to Burlington VT, in part, to escape the smoke of the western fires.

Smoke down here in Maryland has been pretty bad. The weatherman had been having a very hard time getting it right last week. Monday and Tuesday we were supposed to get thunderstorms to the tune of 80%. So I drove. Not a drop. Wednesday and Thursday were supposed to be good, so I road. The smoke was bad enough that it looked foggy in the morning and smokey in the afternoon. Yes, it bothered my eyes and I even got a headache or two, which I never get. Friday, it wasn't supposed to rain, so I road into work. Friday afternoon, I rode home in one of the worst thunderstorms I've ever gotten caught in, in 45 years of riding. I'm now a firm believer in rain mode and modern tires are also a blessing. The bike felt great all the way in. I was also grateful for my loud yellow jacket and my brakefree helmet light because visibility was terrible. Hopefully the smoke will get out of here soon.

We actually had clear skies this afternoon. It seems strange to actually see blue skiy and distinct cloud shapes.

Tomorrow, I'll take my first ride in weeks.