How's the Smoke???

[seatrial]

Does anyone know of a website that gives the forest fire smoke conditoins in Alaska and Canada? I have noticed that Juneau has had smoke for a couple of days. I was hoping to get some good photographs in Alaska, but with the skies looking like LA on a bad day this may be difficult. I noticed that even Vancouver looked a little smoky today on the webcam. Maybe the skies were hazy for some other reason.

 

Thanks

[Yukon]

Like the weather, the smoke conditions vary by the hour. Today was pretty thick in Skagway by our standards, but those of you from LA might think it's not too bad. There is no Web site that gives either current or forecast smoke conditions (it's really only FLAMES we really care about) but the webcams linked from http://www.explorenorth.com/webcam-ak.html will give you a look at current conditions.

 

Murray

[seatrial]

Murray,

 

Thanks for your reply. I am so sad to see all of this smoke. I know it's a part of summer, at least on some level, but those of use from the dirty cities in the conUS envision skies of AK as crystal clear blue. Juneau looks just terrible today. I hope things clear up soon especially for the residents. Can you smell the smoke or just see it? (That sounds like a really dumb question maybe it is). People returning from cruises are not mentioning the smoke, have I missed something?

 

Thanks

[Krazy Kruizers]

:)

 

I, also, am wondering why people returning from Alaskan cruises haven't mentioned anything about the fires and smoke.

 

:)

[Yukon]

The fire smell isn't really noticeable until the smoke gets really thick - which doesn't happen very often, and along the coast the situation seems to be getting better on average.

 

Here's the view in Carcross right now - http://www.yukonalaska.com/webcam/webcam/ and what it looked like three weeks ago, a couple of days before the fires started - http://www.yukonalaska.com/webcam/webcam/fireweed.jpg

And here's one taken from my bus window near Chicken last week - http://www.yukonalaska.com/fire1120.jpg

 

Murray

[lakerboy1]

We were on the Diamond Princess 6-26. The only time we noticed the smoke and haze was when we drove from Skagway to Carcross. Still a very beautiful drive but wished the skies were blue.

Ironically I spent the last 10 months working with over 300 homeowners affected by the wildfires in Southern California last October. It was nuclear winter here for a week with ash falling and no sunlight.

You could definetly smell the smoke in Skagway and through British Columbia and Yukon. Didn't notice it in Juneau or Tracy Arm.

[seatrial]

The smoke in Juneau today looks terrible. However, the winds are from the WNW. Should this help clear the smoke? Are there any fires to the West of Juneau? It really looks bad today. Is the smoke affecting any of the ships or excursions?

 

Thanks

[Florida Beach]

We just came back from July 4 - July 11 sailing on the Sapphire Princess. The smoke was not that bad. However, when we were walking on the Glacier, we noticed that the soot from the fires had settled on the Glacier. However, the air was clean and since we were more interested in the views, we totally forgot about things on the ground.:)