Live updates: Almost 65,000 people evacuated as Spokane County wildfires cause ‘heartbreaking’ devastation

Spokane had the worst air quality in the country as of Monday morning, with an Air Quality Index of 200–rated as “unhealthy,” particularly for children, older adults and those with heart and lung conditions.

This comes after the city briefly saw an index of 369 early Monday morning, more than seven times the upper limit for “good” air quality and high enough to affect even otherwise healthy people.

Wildfire smoke is the main driver of Spokane’s poor air quality, but high temperatures this weekend, sunlight and stagnant air all helped ozone form and accumulate near the ground.

Conditions are expected to worsen as light winds allow smoke to linger and accumulate through Tuesday, potentially pushing air quality back into the hazardous range. Heat will also begin to build back on Tuesday through the end of this week.

Winds are expected to reverse today, switching from westerly to easterly, carrying smoke from the fires across the previously shielded interior Northwest toward Seattle and Portland. Both cities could experience air quality that is “unhealthy for sensitive groups.”

The Cascades should prevent some of the smoke from reaching ground level in western Washington, but skies will become hazier and air quality could still deteriorate Monday night into Tuesday.

The combination of smoke and rising temperatures this week could force people without air conditioning to choose between opening windows for relief from the heat and keeping them closed to prevent smoke from getting inside.