Wildfires in Oregon

 We got out of Portland just in time. The wildfires were raging across Oregon and California. 

The air quality was so bad that Portland was rated #1 in the world for worst AQI. Last I checked, there were 38 active wildfires in Oregon. The closest to us was just south - about 60 miles away. 

Here are a few screenshots of the weather app. The ranking goes "good - moderate - unhealthy - very unhealthy - hazardous." And we stayed hazardous for a few days. 

The air was so smoky & visibility was so low - it felt like a scene out of an apocalyptic movie. It also put a real damper on our mental state. We couldn't go to anything inside with covid or outside with the wildfires.  

But luckily our time in Portland was ending, so we packed up and drove to Twin Falls, Idaho. Definitely a tough drive - this is the "scenic gorge" we drove through. At each rest stop, we pulled out the air purifier to try and de-smoke the car a bit. But in the end, we made it! And Idaho only had "unhealthy air" the first day. Which is still objectively bad, but two steps better.