How will the fires impact viz?

[pufferfish]

drbill once bubbled...
Ash falling here in Avalon and the skies were largely overcast with smoke. During surface intervals my black SCUBA gear looked like someone had shaken a salt shaker on it while I was topside. Air inside my tank tasted sweet- much better than yesterday when three golf carts were parkied up against the air trailer with their engines running. The air in my tank tasted like oil and gas fumes so I called the dive early. Other tanks weren't affected since mine was being filled solo.

Don't think there's any relation to the fire, but the current was RIPPING in the Dive Park in the early AM and just after Noon. Died down by my second dive though.

Dr. Bill

Dr. Bill you and other folks where you can see smoke in the air might want to be very careful with air fills at this point in time. Remember the charcoal does not adsorb CO2 or CO at all and the CO2 levels could be very high in a fill. If there are high CO levels in the air this could overwhelm the hopcalite in the filter and the CO will end up directly in the fill as well. The hopcalite has an upper limit on the concentration of CO it can handle.

The other contaminant to really worry about if your visibility is down is the particulate matter, especially that less than 2.5 micron which even a hyperfilter will not remove. Remember the partial pressure of all these contaminants is much higher at depth so the health effects will also be more significant. A borderline level on surface can easily be toxic at depth.

Lots of other nasties too from houses burning up. I'd be very careful of any fills you get until those fires are out down there.

Hopefully that will be real soon and our thoughts are with your firefighters and all those affected.