Labor Day weekend unhealthy air alert extended through Tuesday

Smoke from Northern California wildfires, stagnant heat and vehicle emissions triggered an extension of the holiday weekend smog alert through Tuesday.

Officials with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District asked residents to limit driving and outdoor activity to avoid lengthy exposure to smog, which is particularly harmful to young children, seniors and those with respiratory and heart conditions.

In Santa Rosa, the air quality index on Monday was in the “moderate“ range. That was good enough for Jason Brand and his family, who evacuated about 10 days ago from Meyers, a town just outside of South Lake Tahoe. The family is staying with relatives in Santa Rosa.

Brand, his wife Megan Suarez, their two children and two dogs spent part of the afternoon Monday hiking on Taylor Mountain, where the skies were mostly blue and frequent breezes replaced the faint smell of smoke with the pungent smell of tarweed.

“This is the nicest we’ve seen for weeks,” Brand said. “We left about a week ago Friday. Luckily, we grabbed what we needed. The air was so bad.”

Since the evacuation order in South Lake Tahoe, just north of Meyers, has been lifted, they hope to return home soon, he said. Though the Caldor fire is just south of the Meyers community, Suarez said “our home is safe.”

Smoke from the Caldor and Dixie fires has been fouling air quality in the Bay Area for weeks now. The Bay Area air district said conditions that originally triggered the latest alert Saturday are expected to continue.

The district issues air alerts when ozone pollution is forecast to reach unhealthy levels. Ozone, or smog can can cause throat irritation, congestion, chest pain, trigger asthma, inflame the lining of the lungs and worsen bronchitis and emphysema. Long-term exposure to ozone can cause damage to the lungs.

District officials said area residents should limit outdoor exercise to the early morning hours during an alert.

A high pressure system over the area is expected to keep the skies over Sonoma County somewhat smoky, with local temperatures in the 90s for much of the week, according to the National Weather Service.

“Some people could notice light to moderate smoke around the area,” Brooke Bingaman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said Monday.

“We still have a lot of the fires north of us. And this week we're under a high pressure system, so all that smoke is just kind of lingering in the area.”

Bay Area air quality officials said climate change is affecting the region with more frequent wildfires and heat waves that are causing poor air quality.

“We can all help by driving less to reduce smog and improve air quality when respiratory health is top of mind for us all,” Veronica Eady, senior deputy executive officer of the Bay Area air quality district, said in a statement.

From Taylor Mountain, the lower areas of Santa Rosa were partially lost in a moderate haze of smog. Wisps of high cirrus clouds and the occasional contrail offered only brief though noticeable shade from the sun.

April Anderson of Santa Rosa and her 13-year-old son Mason were among the few hiking up Taylor Mountain on Monday. Anderson said the air quality wasn’t so bad, at least not as bad as it was a week ago Friday, or last summer, which hosted the Walbridge and Meyers fires in west Sonoma County and the Glass fire to the east.

“We still have our to-go bags from 2017,” Anderson said, referring to the historic North Bay wildfires of that year.

This year, Brand and his family are staying with relatives who evacuated to their place in the South Lake Tahoe area during the 2017 fires.

“We’re getting quality family time right now,” Suarez said.

Bingaman, the weather service forecaster, said the high pressure system, centered near the California-southern Nevada border, will keep high temperatures in the region most of the week between 88 and the high 90s. The warmest temperatures are anticipated in the Cloverdale area, she said.

It won’t be until Friday and next weekend before the North Coast gets some relief, with marine air coming inland to cool things off, Bingaman said.

Visit baaqmd.gov/highs for specific air quality readings.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno.