Smoke still hurting Northern California air quality

SACRAMENTO – The air remained unhealthy in the Sacramento area Monday morning as wildfires continue to burn across Northern California, and some of the morning relief that helped out last week is absent.

Monitors from local air quality districts showed AQI readings in the “unhealthy” classification, from 151 to 200, in the early morning hours across the capital region, according to Sparetheair. com. Pollutant levels are expected to stay in that range most of the day, with the sky already hazy and the smell of smoke apparent outdoors as of 6:30 a.m.

A couple of days last week, an overnight Delta breeze helped clear some smoke away from Sacramento and kept AQI readings significantly lower until pollutants rolled in around midday. The weather hasn’t been quite as cooperative this week.

The Spare The Air forecast page says that a “strong temperature inversion” combined with onshore winds Sunday increased wildfire pollutant buildup for Sacramento. Poor air quality will persist as northerly winds continue.

Smoke has sullied the skies in Northern California for two weeks, ever since dozens of large fires and hundreds of smaller ones sparked during a powerful thunderstorm that brought down thousands of lightning strikes.

For much of that stretch, Sacramento’s air pollution has come primarily from the LNU Lightning Complex, which as of Sunday evening had scorched more than 375,000 acres in parts of Napa, Sonoma, Solano, Yolo and Lake counties west of the capital. That fire continues to output smoke as it is 63% contained, Cal Fire said Monday morning.

But now the poor conditions are coming from the August

Complex, a 220,000-acre blaze that’s been burning in the Mendocino National Forest since Aug. 17, according to a special smoke statement issued Sunday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the mid Central Valley that’s in effect through Monday.

A National Weather Service forecast for near-surface smoke shows a heavy pocket of smoke in the forest, near the convergence of Mendocino, Lake, Tehama and Glenn counties, with winds blowing it in a southeast direction. Some of it is making it to Sacramento, roughly 100 miles away.

At an AQI in the unhealthy range of 151 to 200, residents are advised to stay indoors. If you must go outside, try to limit physical activity, and if you must be active, take frequent indoor breaks.

Spare The Air forecasts show conditions at least in the range of AQI 101 to 150, deemed “unhealthy for sensitive groups,” are expected to persist most of this week across Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado, Yolo and Solano counties.

If you can smell wildfire smoke, that means you are breathing it and it is posing a threat to your health.