An Air Quality Alert takes effect at noon Monday for Kitsap, King, Pierce, Snohomish and Thurston counties, and it will not lift until 5 p.m.
Monday, names King, Kitsap, Pierce, Snohomish and Thurston counties as under an Air Quality Alert from noon Monday, Aug.
The NWS statement did not name specific fires, but the region's largest active blazes sit directly upwind: the Old Trails Fire, which forced a statewide wildfire emergency declaration from Gov.
As of Sunday afternoon, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency was forecasting the region to range from moderate to unhealthy for sensitive groups Monday, worsening to a range of unhealthy for sensitive groups to outright unhealthy on Tuesday.
The CDC lists the range of symptoms wildfire smoke can trigger even in healthy adults with no preexisting conditions: coughing, wheezing, trouble breathing, asthma attacks, stinging eyes, a scratchy throat, a runny nose, irritated sinuses, headaches, fatigue, chest pain and a fast heartbeat.
A National Weather Service alert covers Kitsap and four other Puget Sound counties from noon Monday through Wednesday evening as smoke from Eastern Washington and British Columbia fires arrives alongside a genuine heat spike.