Air Quality Improving, Localized Heavy Rain & Thunderstorms

 Friday started smoky, but thanks to rain and marine air mixing in, air quality has dropped to the"moderate" category!! This is great news! Here is Puyallup's 9 PM reading and forecast. (Note: "today" is Friday, and that 100+ level is not expected again.)

Major improvement! In the moderate category, everyone can go outside, and the only people who need to stay inside are those who are unusually sensitive to slightly degraded air quality. By Sunday, "good" air quality is likely for the first time in over a week!

Air quality is improving because clean marine air is mixing down to the surface, in turn scouring out smoke and dramatically improving air quality. Increased marine air will help to bring AQI back to "good" levels over the weekend!

A little look back at our air quality journey. AQI got to "unhealthy" (150-200) last Friday. It was at "very unhealthy" (201-300) from Saturday to Tuesday, with a peak at "hazardous" (306) on Sunday night. AQI went back to "unhealthy" (150-200) from Wednesday-Thursday, before coming all the way from 145 to 77 today! Major improvement, but as you can tell, it took time. Now go and enjoy that clean air!!

Another good thing...it rained today! Here is a map of 24 hour rain totals (9 PM Thurs. to 9 PM Fri.).

Most areas receive 0.05-0.30 inches of rain, but you'll notice a whopping 1.0-1.4 inches in Federal Way. 

A storm cell with 20+ lightning strikes and very heavy rain moved very slowly over Federal Way from 6:15-7:45 PM tonight, resulting in over 1 inch of rain. Just to show how localized this is, Puyallup had 0.05 inches of rain, while Federal Way received over 1.25 inches. That's a 1.2 inch difference over just 10 miles!

Some scattered showers are still moving NE slowly through the Sound tonight. Saturday will feature scattered showers throughout the area and temperatures 65-70 degrees. Partly sunny weather with highs 65-70 degrees will prevail through Tuesday of next week. After that, a stronger storm system with widespread rain and breezy conditions will move in, likely impacting the area from the 23rd-26th.

The European model (via windy.com) forecasts a whopping 3.79 inches of rain in Puyallup during the next 10 days. The majority of this happens from the 23rd on.

At this time, forecasts are trending 1.5-4.0 inches of rain next week. This is still very far out forecast-wise, but be prepared for a lot of rain. Confidence is increasing that this will be our first autumn storm of the year!