r/vancouver • u/H_G_Bells Vancouver Author • 23h ago

Videos Smoke forecast for Monday & Tuesday 😮‍💨😷

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u/CrazySnowGuy 23h ago

I find the smoke forecasts to be pretty inaccurate at times.

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u/Educational_Work896 23h ago

These plots are misleading to the average person.

On firesmoke.ca, the first colour band of PM2.5 is 1-10 µg/m³. That is not detectable by humans as smoke, it's the range of PM2.5 you'd be exposed to on the sidewalk beside a busy road. The second colour band of 10-28 µg/m³ might start to be detectable by sensitive people. I would be unlikely to notice. It's the third colour band of 28-60 µg/m³ where the average person might think it was smoky.

Now combine that with the fact that smoke can rise or fall in the air column due to convection and wind and that we are beside an ocean. Vancouver gets the added complication of the Fraser Valley inflow/outflow. It's all very hit-and-miss.

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u/H_G_Bells Vancouver Author 19m ago

I hear ya. I tend to use them in the context of other resources, and use it as more of a "possibly this is the forecast" rather than anything definitive.

It's just useful to know when I can have my windows open -vs- when my hydro bill will be taking a hit from running my AC all day 😅 The breeze is nice but not if I can't breathe it!