We noticed the stench of sewage, sulfur, paper mill, pick-your-poison last night when the fog rolled in – and readers commented on it as well. It wasn’t limited to Queen Anne, reports of the stink were coming in via Twitter from Capitol Hill, Wallingford, Ballard, downtown… basically the city of Seattle was stinky.
Today, a reader tipped us via Twitter that Seattle Weekly got an explanation for the smell from UW meteorologist Cliff Mass.
“There was a strong, low level inversion above Seattle last night, with the cold fog layer below. The inversion acts as a lid to pollutants. Plus, the winds were weak so there was little mixing. That allows pollutants and smells to concentrate. The smells of the city… unmixed and concentrated… The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency is not reporting any decline in air quality… I checked with them.”
So, there you go. Let’s see what the fog brings tonight… hopefully just the visual senses will be affected.
UPDATE: you can read Cliff Mass’ blog post on the stink with graphs and more here.