justineshapiro

I am sick and tired of waking every morning and looking at a hazy smoggy sky here in Baltimore. It seems like every day this summer has been either cloudy, raining, smoggy or hazy. I have not seen a rich blue sky for at least two months.

The weather people are promoting the sunny skies today but in fact the sky is the typical white grey from all the haze and pollution. From the hill I live on, I can not see more than a few miles.

How far west (in America) do I have to go to see a rich blue sky and things in the distance will not be blocked by haze and smog? Is there a place in America today that has rich super dark blue skies and visability of over 50 miles? Tell me about it and I will visit there soon!

elberko

justineshapiro/andytrav/fatgirl/bunchargum, when you move to New Jersey and start your new high-paying job (AFTER you get back from China, of course) you won't have time for all these silly worries...

doc_

It is clear in Siberia,please visit there. please keep flying west.

fairfax

I agree about the haze! I take the boat across Baltimore harbour every morning and afternoon, and the air just feels so scummy.

I heard a report about how bad the air is at the Grand Canyon - and saw the evidence when I was there a couple of years ago - so I guess there aren't too many smog free areas anymore.

What we need is a huge cold front to blow in from Canada and push this all out of here!

Maggi

Winter is a bear, but summertime in Michigan can be beautiful. Today is one of those bright blue sky, white puffy cloud kind of days. I expected that kind of weather when we visited San Diego a month ago, but there was a lot of haze there too, especially in the mornings. So, how far west? How about Hawaii!

ellen_griswold

Ooooh yes, how i hear you! Can i go with you?

How far west? Soooo many INCREDIBLE places come to mind.....but one of the closest would be South Dakota - the Badlands Nat'l Park or Theo Roosevelt Nat'l Park in N. Dakota.

Continue on I90 to Devil's Tower and Yellowstone! Head north to Montana and Glacier Nat'l Park - they don't call it big-sky-country for nothing LOVE it there, and oooooh how i want to go back - NOW!

Or, go south from Yellowstone into Grand Teton country, continue on south thru Utah's "color-country" for the most incredibly CLEAR, blue skies in America (Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef etc) And where you can literally see for miles and miles and miles......

Ok, we're pretty far west now lol but its been fun taking the trip down memory lane!

Coskier

Come to Colorado high country. Skies so blue it hard to describe. Warm days, cool nights. Ahhhhh look at www.summitnet.com for some pics that will make you drool.

bookhall

EllenG's right. The Zion-Bryce area is almost as good as it gets.

There's a chart in the visitor's center at Bryce that gives the mean summer visibility for various locations in the US. Looks like Salt Lake City is the large metro area with great visibility--Denver would be next. I did get a photo of the chart: Go to the Bryce album at http://community.webshots.com/user/bookhall

soccr

Try west of the San Bernardino Mountains in California. Ahhhhh.....

J_Correa

We saw some very nice blue skies in New Orleans - the rain had washed away any smog and dirt particles and then the sun came out - incredible.

John

Normally I would say the Last Best Place---Northwest Montana. However with all the wild fires this summer we have a smokey haze that is irritating to the eyes and throat!!!

Curious

soccr,

West of the San Bernadino Mountains????????????????????????????????

You've got to be kidding!!!!!!!! That is SMOG CITY!!!, the smogiest area in the United States.

Curious

suzanne

Southern Utah has unbelievably blue skies...

rjw_lgb_ca

Just curious, Curious, whenever anyone says anything nice about southern California why do you immediately jump on yelling "SMOG! SMOG! SMOG!"?

The smog situation depends on where you are in southern California, west of the San Bernardinos, doesn't it? It can be bad in downtown LA, but the air can be downright clean in Santa Monica or Malibu, or down in Long Beach or Huntington Beach or Laguna Beach or San Diego. And there's always WAY west of the San Bernardinos-- Catalina Island.

Please avoid blanket statements about air quality in this area-- and by the way, the air quality is improving steadily over the years.

Barbara

Maggi, you were in San Diego at the end of our annual "June Gloom". What I wouldn't give for some of that cool weather right now! There are some clouds and the temperature is 93F - and I live only about 5 miles from the coast and can see the ocean from my house. The humidity is 34%.

Oh, and the air quality is good.

turn_it_on

It's been hot in L.A., but the skies for the past few weeks have been incredible--wonderfully blue with an artist's rendering of clouds...also creating amazing, enormous multihued sunsets, some of them rivalling the post-Pinatubo-eruption skies of several years ago.

When it's good here, it's freakin GOOD.

love
roxy

soccr

Can't put one over on you, Curious, can I? I just spent a week there in the yellow air and had a sore throat and a cough most of the time.

Justine, the way you phrased your post, it sounds like you think civilization ends at the Appalachians and there's nothing but wilderness from there to the Pacific.

Of course there are some beautiful places all over the country -- try Garrett County just west of yourself. But you can't just look at a map of population density and go where there aren't people and expect pristine conditions. For one thing, you have to be upwind of pollution sources and you wouldn't believe how far the pollution from cars and power plants can float on the weather. Beautiful Asheville NC in the mountains still sometimes gets socked in by pollution from Atlanta car exhaust and Tennessee coal-burning power plants.

Kaf kaf kaf.