Thick smoke filled the Puget Sound leading up to the weekend, plunging air quality into the “unhealthy” category in parts of the region late Friday afternoon – and these smoky conditions and cloudy, overcast skies are expected to last through the weekend.
Most of the local sea-level smoke drifted in from the Bear Gulch blaze near Lake Cushman, while light westerly winds helped keep the smoke blowing toward Seattle and Shoreline.
That same onshore flow kept the marine layer flowing in from the coast as well, and surface clouds joining forces with the smoke made for a toxic soup over Elliott Bay while the view of the Space Needle disappeared into the haze by the evening commute…