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People are absolutely moving because of weather. The PNW has had terrible summers for about the past 5 years. Before there were decades of great mild summer wea
by rnk 5y ago
People are absolutely moving because of weather. The PNW has had terrible summers for about the past 5 years. Before there were decades of great mild summer weather, often July, Aug, Sept. These past few years there were smoke concentrations at deadly levels. Not just from one forest fire. Multiple fires every year. This is separate from the danger of a fire burning your house down. My coastal area wasn't right next to a fire, it was hundreds of miles away. The weather patterns were pulling air from the interior to the coast. If you live in Washington, Oregon, or northern California you were endangering your life if went outside. My nextdoor neighbor told me he was moving to get away from that. This was 2 years ago. Since then it has gotten worse. We've thought of selling our mountain cabin. Instead of the summer, people say our 4th season is the smoke season, only half jokingly.
At the same time, people keep moving here because we have so many jobs. There aren't that many people moving away, but lots more talk about it. I think about another 5 years will really accelerate the trend. We all know there have been historical times when there was some smoky air. Even Mark Twain wrote about it when he visited Seattle more than 100 years ago. Now it's happening every year, with severe impact. All my friends bought air conditions for the first time including me, and we also have air cleaners and air quality gauges for our inside air.