I have a flight from the S.W to Portland end of this week. Just wondering everyone's thoughts on safety and potential turbulence flying over and through the smoke and fires? Some background, I'm a nervous flier, but I still manage to get through flights most of the time. The fires just erupted a few days ago, so this is a really unexpected thing to anticipate. Just wondering everyone's thoughts on it? I'm slightly surprised that most flights are operating normally. I thought there have been incidents with smoke going into airplane engines, especially around volcanoes? I'm concerned about smoke and ash into the engines and about visability, though that's a lesser concern since pilots don't necessarily need visibility. PHX to PDX with Southwest in a 15 year old 737-700.

Besides safety concerns, shouldn't the smoke and fires produce a lot of turbulence and a lot of their "own weather?"

Thanks for any insight into this to help put my mind a little bit at ease?!