Seattle coated in ash after wildfires cause it to fall like snow over city

A summer blizzard? Not quite

A sign warns of a highway closure in Troutdale, Oregon on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2017, as fires blazed across the Western United States. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus)

Residents of Seattle are accustomed to regular rain, but summer wildfires are bringing a more unusual weather pattern: a blizzard of ash.

Blazes scorching Washington state poured smoke into the atmosphere and blanketed the state’s largest city with ash that “fell like snow”, according to the Seattle Times.

People in the Seattle metropolitan area found evidence of multiple fires coating their cars. Images shared on social media showed vehicles dusted with grey ash.

Summer is fire season on the West Coast, when soaring temperatures and dry brush spark conflagrations that often consume tens of thousands of acres and prompt government action to halt fires before they spread catastrophically. And 2017 has been a busy one.

In California, Gov. Jerry Brown has declared three states of emergency for three different blazes in the last week alone. Fires scorching the state of Oregon have blanketed areas in a grey haze and prompted the governor - who has similarly invoked the state's emergency fire act three times in the last month - to dispatch hundreds of additional firefighters.

Days ago Washington Gov. Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency for every county, citing a “high risk of severe wildfires” due to above-average temperatures and dryness.

Hundreds of thousands of acres were still alight across the state as of Tuesday morning, according to a state tally. The Washington Department of Ecology warned that air quality is “quite unhealthy in some areas” and would remain poor for days.