Special Weather Statement
..smoke will greatly reduce visibilities for the evening commute…
Visibilities will be reduced to 1 to 3 miles over portions of the cities of Chesapeake and Virginia Beach this afternoon and into the evening hours. Some locations may fall to under a mile at times in the thickest smoke.
Towards evening… winds will shift more out of the south allowing for the plume of smoke to move back into the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth. This will likely hamper the commute home as sudden changes in visibilities will occur.
Some locations that will see the greatest reduction in visibilities (but not limited to) through the early evening hours will be Deep Creek… Herberts Corner… .Greenbrier… Kempsville… Bayside… Cape Henry… Norview… downtown Norfolk and Portsmouth.
People with respiratory ailments in areas of smoke and haze should remain indoors today.
Could be worse, though.
A fire that began in the Dismal Swamp in 1923 burned for three years, sending yellowish peat smoke over Hampton Roads for just as long and scorching nearly 100,000 acres.
It was called the Great Conflagration.
Who knew? 