SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — Air quality deteriorated to the ‘very unhealthy’ level early Friday in the San Francisco Bay Area as a plume of smoke and ash from wildfires raging across the West remained stalled overhead and combined with fog to cast the region’s skies in a sickly color of gray.
The National Weather Service said there will be little or no relief coming on Friday. The so-called high attitude steering winds that had helped improved air quality earlier in the week had disappeared.
“Smoke and haze also continue to reduce visibility across our entire region and a thick layer of smoke continues to blanket much of the state,” the weather service said Friday morning. “Given that winds are forecast to remain light through a deep layer of the atmosphere today, the thick smoke layer will persist and visibilities will be slow to improve.”
The HRRR Model's forecast of total smoke indicates more of the same through this evening with widespread heavy smoke concentrations persisting. Continued light winds will mean very little in the way of smoke dispersion. #CAwx pic.twitter.com/eNp14x6XBY
— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) September 11, 2020
The dark orange skies of earlier in the week had turned gray by Friday morning. Ash continued to collect on parked cars and outdoor decks. The Air Quality Index (AQI) levels map was dotted with very unhealthy purple readings across the Bay Area, including a 249 in San Rafael and 236 in San Leandro at 8 a.m.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued a ‘Spare the Air’ alert for record 25th straight day, warning local residents of the dangers presented by lengthy exposure outdoors.
The hazardous smoky air forced San Francisco State officials to cancel their limited number of on-campus, in-class sessions on Friday. Remote learning classes were being held.
Many people like Ryan Peralta tried to minimize their time outside Thursday and likely will be doing the same on Friday. A normally busy Mission Bay park on Berry Street was nearly empty around lunch time.
“If I can see ash on cars, I’m not trying to be outside and breathing that air,” Peralta said.
Dr. Peter Gleick of Oakland’s Pacific Institute told KPIX 5 that major fires and smoke-filled skies are something Bay Area residents will be contending with as the climate continues to change.
“You can just think of it as 2020,” Guenther said. “You’ve seen a lot of tweets like that. People tweet the photograph of what San Francisco looked like and say, ‘Oh, 2020, could you get any worse?’ As if once we get into 2021, these disasters are going to stop happening. It’s not just 2020. It’s that the future has come to us.”
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Hazardous Air Levels Climb As A Smoky, Ash-Filled Plume Remains Draped Over San Francisco Bay Area - CBS San Francisco
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