Hazardous levels of smoke are spreading across the state — and into other states.
Air district officials have called a “Spare the Air” alert for Wednesday, but the smoke is much worse between Sacramento and Oregon, and drifting into other states
Major wildfires burning across California are spreading hazardous levels of smoke across the West, turning skies across the Bay Area into what’s becoming the Summer of 2018’s familiar hue: sun-streaked gray.
On Tuesday, the National Weather Service office in Boise, Idaho, released a map showing how the smoke is expected to spread through Wednesday, well into Canada and deep into Colorado. Smoke across California led to air quality advisories in the Sierra and Central Valley.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District extended an air quality advisory through Thursday, urging people who smell smoke to stay inside with windows and doors closed and set air conditioning systems in their homes and cars to re-circu-
late to prevent outside air from moving inside.
The thick gray obscured foothills throughout the Bay Area and raised the gloomy prospect of smoke fouling major music festivals this weekend with Outside Lands set for San Francisco and the Jazz Summer Fest in downtown San Jose.
“We’re hoping the air quality doesn’t affect people’s desire to go outside,” said Vanessa Burchell, an employee at The Glasshouse, an event venue for San Jose’s jazz festival, which starts Friday.
As of mid-day Tuesday, at least 16 major fires were burning across the state, with the largest being the Mendocino Complex Fire in Lake County, the Carr Fire near Redding and the Ferguson Fire near Yosemite.
By Tuesday morning, the Mendocino Complex Fire, burning mostly in grasslands around Clear Lake, had charred 290,692 acres — an area larger than the cities of San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland and Sacramento combined — making it the largest wildfire in recorded California history.
Hazardous levels of soot in the air are a large part of the reason that national parks officials announced Sunday that Yosemite National Park would remain
closed indefinitely while fire crews continue to battle the Ferguson Fire.
The Bay Area Air District first called a “Spare the Air” alert on Monday, urging people to drive less, ride public transportation, refrain from outdoor barbecues
and take other measures to limit air pollution.
Ton Flannigan, a spokesperson for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, said that temperatures pushing 90 degrees Wednesday and winds out of the north will switch the
region’s air quality to unhealthy. Inland areas such as Livermore, the Santa Clara Valley and parts of the East Bay like Walnut Creek will be the most adversely affected by the Mendocino Complex Fire smoke.
High levels of soot in the air, called particulate pollution, can exacerbate breathing difficulties for people with asthma and other respiratory problems. It can also increase the risk of heart attacks and other ailments.
“I can already tell the difference,” said Paul Parson, a Doordash delivery man who said the smoke combined with his asthma has made it particularly hard to jog outdoors. “The air is much thicker, it’s harder to breathe.”