Why is the air quality so bad in san jose
Bay Area Forecast: Poor Air Quality Continues
turn things over to meteorologist jeff
franieri and jeff let's talk about this
weird haze that we're having we're 22
days you know
and still counting here when can we
expect the air to clear a little bit for
us
well that's really unknown right now
because of all of the active fire
behavior around us we now
that we have our bay area fires you know
with some great containment numbers we
now have three
other large fires outside of the bay
area get a little bit of wind shift here
and there
and we're seeing that smoke move in so
we really need to see a lot of this fire
activity
uh get control of before we see some
march marked differences i do want to
start off with a red flag fire warning
that really has been a big concern in
the mountains we have those pg e
safety power shutoffs that are happening
right now and i do want to let you know
in the mountains over the past 24 hours
we have seen wind gusts up to 60 miles
per hour at mount st helena
atlas peak to 41 but notice the
disparity here down at the surface not
quite as gusty napa 18
nevado 17 and santa rosa at 13. so the
red flag fire warning remains in effect
for 1 000 feet and above
until 8 o'clock tomorrow morning and
then we'll see those winds in the
mountains
beginning to calm down i want to get to
the other top
pressing issue and that is the sky and
the smoke look we all look towards the
distance today
and you can see that orange sky the haze
the thick
smoke and you'll see it right here in
that live walnut creek sky camera but
look at these
live air quality sensor readings we're
seeing right now take a look at the key
at the top and you can see most of the
bay area is reading
moderate to unhealthy for sensitive
groups from the north bay to the south
bay
you'd think by the way it looks we'd be
reading the
very unhealthy category but there's a
reason why we're seeing
the thick smoke towards the distance and
it's not
translating down to very unhealthy air
quality i want to show you why
so let's get a look and you can see as
we get this expanded view
we have those three fires that are
contributing to the smoke
the august complex the creek fire and
the dolan fire
now with those fires the
smoke with the most harmful particles is
traveling
just above the ground level so
those dangerous smoke particles are
there but it's just not down here on the
surface where we're breathing it so it
is giving us a little bit of a break in
that respect even though it looks
completely gross
so as we look at this explainer i put
together i think this does a really good
job of explaining
why the most harmful smoke is staying
above the surface
and you can see with what we're dealing
with right now
the smoke is lifting into the atmosphere
fifteen to two thousand feet above the
surface
and stronger winds in the upper levels
it's keeping that
smoke suspended because right down here
near the surface
the winds are not that gusty to kind of
mix those dangerous particles down to
the surface
so we're getting lucky we're not seeing
very unhealthy air
and the worst of it's staying just above
the surface so for tomorrow
that means we're going to be in the
moderate to unhealthy range kind of
teetering back and forth
so as you move through tomorrow morning
you can see my temperatures will be
starting off in the low 60s here with
that fog and also the haze
down to 60 for the east bay san
francisco 58 and the north bay at 59.
my seven-day forecast here in san
francisco does drop it down to some
cooler 60s by friday
saturday sunday and monday and for the
inland valleys we're also seeing a
considerable drop
from that heat wave will eventually get
down to 87 by friday
and also on saturday so we'll say
goodbye to the heat
later on this week the smoke it's going
to be a day by a day issue for us here
okay thank you jeff
