SPOKANE, Wash.-- Folks in the Spokane area woke up on Friday to some weird-smelling air.
At first guess, some people described the smell as perhaps "food" or "smelly feet," others simply called the odor smoky.
The scent is in fact a variant of the same wildfire smoke we've been smelling all week.
That smoke primarily comes from the Williams Flats Fire on the Colville Reservation, and with certain winds, some from the CCC Fire near Cataldo, Idaho.
But, this smell is a bit stronger and weirder than the one we've been used to. And a look at the air quality meter or a peek outside reveals the smoke isn't actually much thicker.
So what gives?
The answer: humidity.
Spokane has been seeing much higher humidity levels recently. All the moisture in the air is making the smoke smell stronger and just generally different.
Humidity actually intensifies all odors. That's because the water particles mean there's just more stuff in the air. The odor particles bounce against those water particles, allowing the smell to stay in the air longer and making it more likely to hit your nose.
The smell dissipated over the course of the day, but as smoke and humidity levels vary, it may very likely come back in full force.