Sounds like a good plan and as I am writing this, that easterly muck is closing in from off the North Sea yet again.

I'm surprised it hasn't warranted more news coverage tbh. Maybe now that it's encroaching on people's homes it will.

It's not in London, so it won't.

pretty much my thoughts....bbc have it as third article now.... been going 72hrs now... hope people get evacuated ok and homes stay safe as are fire services who’ve been fighting it since Sunday.... coming over the tops this side according to peeps in tintwhistle.... wind has been gusty since sunset.... 21c out tinder dry up on moors and down here...

The fire is lead story on the BBC news website this morning.

Here it's a murky start and IME this sort of thing and the expected "burn back" isn't modelled well at all. Therefore an element of fingers crossed always applies,

Cloudy here too this morning. The cloud looks thin and its bright in places so fingers crossed it is gone in the next hour (as per Met Office app), but i agree its difficult to model.

That fire must be absolutely massive - there’s a really strong smell of smoke here and I’m 11 miles away. 

Bad enough for a need to close all the windows. 

It apparently spans 6km now and they are thinking of calling the army in. They will probably need to because if they've not brought it under control in the last few days, they won't manage it in the next few surely. It's just going to spread and spread.

Even yesterday, there was quite a decent temperature contrast across the city as the warmest of my three local stations was Edinburgh Gogarbank where a maximum of 21.0ºC was recorded, but that wasn't the warmest place in Edinburgh during yesterday.Yesterday's maximum temperature at Swanston hasn't yet been posted on their website as I write but according to the Met Office observations site, that was 22.4ºC.

The coolest place in Edinburgh though was Edinburgh Airport at just 17ºC which is perhaps rather surprising since that is virtually right next door to Edinburgh Gogarbank, but the botanic gardens in Edinburgh weren't much warmer than that with a maximum of just 17.6ºC.

It would appear to be the case that the warmer that this air mass is at it source, the bigger the resulting temperature contrast between the east coast and everywhere is as long as that easterly flow remains in place so if anywhere further to my west is going to get above 30ºC today, that is likely to make that temperature contrast even within Edinburgh itself, that much greater.

There has been many times in the past when I have noticed that as well because there has been many times when I have felt quite cold here under an easterly wind. When I got to the opposite side of the city though (I was heading towards Penicuik at that time), it then felt absolutely roasting in comparison yet when I got back home again later on, I was back to feeling quite cold once again.

I've smelled smoke here a few times, and its even been thick enough to create a hazy/foggy effect after a few hundred metres. The air quality last night must have been terrible, and I'm about 9 miles away. Must be horrific for the people in Mossley and Stalybridge.

Thankfully the smoke has cleared here this morning, though there is still a slight smell of it.

Moorland fires are not particularly uncommon during dry spellls on the hills around Manchester, I've seen a few over the years on Winter Hill above Bolton. However they do tend to occur rather earlier during the spring when new growth hasn't yet taken over from the old, dead material from the provious year. This fire looks to be a monster though. Homes evacuated, schools closed, the army on stand-by. That's not normal for a NW England moorland fire! Therer are several more days of heat to come and no significant rainfall is forecast in the reliable timeframe. It could get very serious indeed should a strong easterly wind develop.

And of course, I'm sure that this will probably also be resulting in the usual suspects out there (by that, I mean the general public outside of this forum) blaming that on climate change.

Of course, I'm not going to go into that here since that is a subject for the climate forum and not for here on the main weather forum. Nevertheless, it won't surprise me in any way if someone was to start a new thread there on that very subject if they haven't done so already.

Driving into Manchester this morning, there was a sudden deterioration in air quality as I reached the outskirts of the city centre on the Mancunian Way. A relatively thick haze was accompanied by a strong smell of smoke. West of that, it's clear.

It's now the top story on BBC News website

I think there was a fire Rivington way yesterday as well.

http://www.itv.com/news/granada/2018-06-26/photos-drone-shows-extent-of-rivington-pike-moorland-fire/

Definite smell of smoke in the air again today just lingering here at work in Warrington. Sky looks clear though. Haven't seen a cloud for days. Even during our usual heatwaves there is usually frustrating spells of cloud or haze due to humidity but this is just endless dry hot sun from 4am until 10pm.

The ground here is bone dry and yellow which might be normal for some places but for here, I find it fascinating because it is so rare!

Sounds incredible the bush fire near Manchester. Keep us informed all of you who happen to be in the area.

Fire is news headlines in this paper.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html

Glad you didn't call it a newspaper.

I first spotted the fire on Monday - my initial thoughts were wow that really is a big one, much bigger than I'd seen before (moor fires are fairly regular). I've been lucky in Diggle as although the fire is as close as ~ 4 km away the wind has blown the smoke in a different direction today, this morning was clear and fresh. Manchester on the other hand is smokey and it's not pleasant! 

I didn't realise at first but it seems that it is so dry the peat has caught and unless there's any significant rain I think this will probably keep burning and the aim will be to simply contain it.

Currently 25C at Manchester & Liverpool.

Blackpool up at 27C.

Maybe ever so slightly cooler than yesterday? Can't remember what the temperature was at this stage 24 hours ago.

Hoping we can scrape 30C again.

Meanwhile down south we're only at 21C at the moment against 26C the same time yesterday. Started off cloudy this morning but then suddenly cleared around 8am. Quite a breeze now though, so markedly different.