LYNCHBURG, Tenn. — If you suffer from pulmonary conditions like asthma or COPD, you should be aware that skies over Moore County are expected to turn hazy beginning tonight (July 28) as smoke from large wildfires burning across Oregon and Washington rides the jet stream into Middle Tennessee, with the heaviest smoke aloft forecast for Wednesday.

The smoke is being pulled east by a ridge of high pressure positioned to the region’s west. On the eastern edge of that ridge, upper-level winds are flowing from the northwest to the southeast — a pattern that carries smoke plumes aloft across the country rather than lifting them from anywhere nearby.

The fires driving the smoke are large. More than 30 large wildfires are currently burning across Oregon and Washington, sparked in mid-July by lightning from severe storms and fueled since by critical fire weather; the fires have consumed nearly one million acres combined, the majority of them in Oregon, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

For most Moore County residents, the impact will be cosmetic before it’s anything else: hazier daytime skies and unusually vivid, colorful sunrises and sunsets tonight and Wednesday. The smoke is expected to remain aloft rather than settle at ground level, so it is not expected to force changes to most outdoor plans.

Residents with asthma, other respiratory conditions, or cardiovascular disease should still take it easy outdoors and watch for symptoms, a standard precaution during any wildfire smoke event, even one that stays mostly in the upper atmosphere.

The smoke is forecast to clear out by Thursday, pushed south and away from the region by an incoming cold front expected Wednesday night.

This is a separate smoke event from the Canadian wildfire smoke that dimmed skies across the Midwest and Northeast earlier this month; that smoke has largely cleared the region.

Residents can track real-time conditions at the AirNow Fire and Smoke Map or through the National Weather Service Nashville office. •

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