Althouse: A rosy prediction: Unhealthy. Up from Very Unhealthy.

July 17, 2026

A rosy prediction: Unhealthy. Up from Very Unhealthy.

24 comments:

tim maguire said...: In the last couple hours, we went from off the chart to fine. We opened windows while we can, but expect to have to close them up again tonight. Rain tomorrow should provide a longer term benefit.

My eyes and throat are feeling a bit better.; 7/17/26, 11:49 AM
Interested Bystander said...: Yeah we had all that terrible air back in 2020. It was terrible. I'm feeling for the millions of people having to breathe bad air. There's no escaping it.

We live in California's central valley and all that smoke from the northern California wildfires settled in the valley and wouldn't leave. It was so bad I was thinking of going to the coast but then fires broke out north of the Bay Area and left it under a nasty orange cloud. Hopefully y'all will get some rain or at least a breeze to clear it out soon. Thoughts and prayers.; 7/17/26, 11:54 AM
Jaq said...: It reached one point where visibility was under a mile and it smelled like the wind was coming through the fireplace and stinking up the house, except there are no ashes in the fireplace. It’s pretty clear now but there is a brown cloud over the Green Mountains that reminds me of Denver in the eighties; 7/17/26, 11:58 AM
Enigma said...: The California Central Valley has an inversion layer per the coastal and Sierra Nevada mountains on each side. With mere vehicle exhaust, farm dust, and farm waste burning, the air gets seriously bad. Adding fire smoke would make it literally the most toxic air in the country.

Los Angeles is famous for smog, and in decades past it was worse. The moon would first appear as a brown, then orange, disc as it rose in the sky. New people would be in disbelief that it was the moon. Also, there was a massive "tongue" of dark smog flowing from LA proper to the "Inland Empire" every afteroon.

Adjacent to the most expensive real estate in the country...; 7/17/26, 12:14 PM
Lazarus said...: There was talk about the sun appearing as a blood red disk Tuesday evening, or maybe it was the moon. People couldn't agree. The sky was pinkish and at 4 it was as dark as it gets at 7 or later. Fortunately we have the internet so we know that it wasn't the Apocalypse or nuclear war.

I had questions about the "Unhealthy. Up from Very Unhealthy" -- but figured it wasn't worth the effort it would take to hash than out.; 7/17/26, 12:35 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: “ A rosy prediction: Unhealthy. Up from Very Unhealthy.”

Damn. Does that mean the sunrise photos won’t be as pretty today?; 7/17/26, 12:38 PM
Peachy+2 said...: The Camron fire a few years ago - deposited chunks of ash into the air - and very low visibility in the northern towns of CO.
Longmont and north.

yeah - fire season sux.; 7/17/26, 12:38 PM
Peachy+2 said...: "Cameron"; 7/17/26, 12:39 PM
rehajm said...: Is this the daily voter fraud eyeroll warning or something else?; 7/17/26, 12:49 PM
Peachy+2 said...: NY City looks like down town Beijing; 7/17/26, 12:50 PM
Big Mike said...: Yesterday in the Shenandoah Valley the AQI peaked at 77. Right now we’re at 230. Quite an unwelcome change; 7/17/26, 12:52 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: I guess "Very Unhealthy" sound better than "you're gonna die".; 7/17/26, 12:54 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: Blame Canada. Once a joke, now a reality.; 7/17/26, 12:54 PM
Peachy+2 said...: some parts of the planet are flooding .
Some are burning...
The sun is a cruel bitch.; 7/17/26, 1:19 PM
Jaq said...: The sun appeared orange here, and the light was reminiscent of the eclipse last year.; 7/17/26, 1:55 PM
Josephbleau said...: I was told bout the old days of the 60’s in the corporate office in Chicago where coal was used for downtown buildings and people wearing white shirts looked grey by end of day. Similar to the famous killer smog of London. Due to the use of nat gas and better dust control tech plus air conditioning, it is orders of magnitudes better today.; 7/17/26, 2:09 PM
Old and slow said...: I came to Ireland to escape the heat and I’ve had 4 weeks now of near 80F sunny days, not a drop of rain. Meanwhile, back in northern Arizona, it’s 81F with loads of rain. I’m happy for them of course, but I’m wishing I could come here in October or March. I’ve been wearing shorts, and it feels all wrong. I’ll be out sailing racing dinghies tomorrow in the cold north Atlantic, so that should cool me off nicely.; 7/17/26, 2:10 PM
Jersey Fled said...: Pure BS from the health Nazi’s. Again.; 7/17/26, 3:01 PM
Jersey Fled said...: My neighbor was out this morning cutting his grass with a surgical mask on. He’s in his thirties and strong as a horse. Which raises an interesting question. Are horses dropping dead from all this smoke? I mean, they don’t make horse masks, do they? Who’s looking after the poor ponies?

But anyway, he’s a high school teacher. I stopped listening to them more than 5 decades ago.; 7/17/26, 3:16 PM
Jersey Fled said...: Oh, and I heard my first radio ad of the season this morning urging me to get my Covid vaccine shot.

So many things to worry about. So little time.; 7/17/26, 3:24 PM
Jersey Fled said...: Smoke from Canada. Parasites from Mexico. They’re trying to kill us.; 7/17/26, 3:26 PM
james said...: I see something odd out the window--blue skies and a few white clouds. And the AirNow page says the pollution levels are merely Moderate here in Dane County.; 7/17/26, 5:18 PM
mongo said...: The city of Chicago said the air quality was the worst in recorded history and that people should stay inside. Worse than the Great Chicago Fire of 1871?; 7/17/26, 7:15 PM
Gospace said...: Air quality here is good today. I walked 7¼ miles on the canalway trail today. 90 miles west in Buffalo it's not so good. Where one son is headed right now for his drill weekend. The pattern shifted more to the south. Another son in Virginia Beach was complaining about the smoke today. Virginia Beach is a long way from Canada...; 7/17/26, 7:19 PM