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Smelling smoke? Forecasters say ‘trapped’ Eastern Mass. brush fire smoke is to blame.
The smoke should fade away later on Monday, according to the National Weather Service.
Many Bay Staters awoke to the smell of smoke Monday morning as the haze from several Eastern Massachusetts brush fires made its way throughout the region.
Around 9 a.m., Accuweather’s smoke map showed a belt of smog stretching from the North Shore down south past Foxborough, blanketing large swaths of Boston’s metro area.
That smoky odor follows several wildfires that broke out in Massachusetts over the weekend. On Friday night, the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for all of Southern New England, sounding the alarm about conditions that could lead to dangerous wildfire growth.
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“Very dry conditions and gusty northwest winds will cause fires to spread quickly should they start,” NWS Boston wrote in a Friday alert.
The agency reiterated its warning in another statement Monday.
“Waking up to the smell of smoke this morning, [Southern New England]? Numerous wildfires broke out over the weekend with the largest consuming 100+ Acres in Salem, MA,” NWS Boston wrote on X.
Data from the National Interagency Fire Center shows dozens of recent wildland fire incidents throughout Massachusetts, including the Salem blaze and another in Millbury that claimed a woman’s life Saturday night. In Middleton, fire crews spent much of Sunday battling a brush fire near power lines adjacent to Upton Hills Road and the Middleton Reservoir, with firefighters withdrawing from the area overnight as darkness set in, per the Middleton Fire Department. Shortly before 8 p.m. Sunday, the agency said the fire spanned an estimated size of 50 acres.
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Overnight and into early Monday morning, firefighters in Cambridge responded to several calls about an “odor of smoke” that stemmed from the brush fires on the North Shore, the Cambridge Fire Department noted in a post on X. According to NWS Boston, a surface inversion — essentially, a temperature difference between the layers of air in the sky — kept the smoke trapped close to the ground.
However, NWS Boston said the smoke should “mix out” later in the morning.
Elsewhere on social media, Greater Boston residents and journalists shared their photos, videos, and complaints about the smog and its accompanying campfire smell.
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