Air Quality Alert through Thursday, relief possible through the weekend

Air Quality Alert extended through Thursday

Q13 Meteorologist Grace Lim has your forecast.

SEATTLE - An Air Quality Alert is now in effect until noon Thursday. More rain and strong marine push by the end of the workweek and into the weekend should help clean the air and clear out the smoky haze, fingers crossed!

Here's my smoke timeline, but with any forecast, things can change, but here's my thinking:

Widespread smoke expected through the rest of today. Some passing showers are possible with a weakening system offshore, but the warm front is expected to track north, so we'll miss out on the widespread rain.

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The little smidge of rain we're getting now is doing a poor job cleaning the air, and we're still dealing with very unhealthy air quality across Western Washington.

Trailing cold front could bring cleaner, ocean air! Our model is suggesting a brief period of clearer, smoke-free conditions on Tuesday!

The improvements on Tuesday will be short-lived because by Wednesday, southerly winds will bring in more smoke from Oregon. I think Wednesday is going to be really bad, much like how smoky it was on Saturday. Because of that, despite the improvements expected Tuesday, Air Quality Alert will be in effect until noon Thursday.

By Thursday, hazy conditions are still possible in the morning. Widespread rain is expected by the afternoon, which can help clean the air! Rain will continue into Friday and Saturday and a stronger marine push over the weekend may finally wipe out the smoky haze. As always, monitor the forecast for any changes.