No fires, but plenty of haze in the air
A meteorologist says wildfires burning south are pushing smoke into Solano County. But there's a glimmer of hope for next week.
(Dense, thick smoke from the LNU Lightning Complex wildfire blankets Solano County on September 9, 2020. Photo by the author.)
Smoke filled the sky above Solano County again Wednesday night in what has become an all-too-familiar sight this summer.
The smoke renewed concerns of possible wildfires burning in the area, but fire officials say there are no wildfires burning within the county, except for a small vegetation fire that scorched some land on Twitchell Island near Rio Vista.
In an interview with Solano News Update on Wednesday, National Weather Service meteorologist Robert Baruffaldi said the smoke lingering over Solano County is likely being drawn from several wildfires burning south of the area.
“Three or four of those fires were putting out a lot of smoke today,” Baruffaldi said. “A lot of the smoke is traveling north, wrapping around Northern California and then pushing back down the east side of the crest.”
How long the smoke will linger in the area is hard to predict, Baruffaldi said, in part because some of the forecast models the weather agency uses have not been reliable in over the past few days. He predicted air quality conditions could improve by tomorrow night at the earliest because shifting wind will “carry a lot of the smoke away from us.”
“There’s still a slight chance of smoke drifting from the south, but probably not as much as today, and that makes it more favorable,” he said.
Smoke from nearby wildfires in Napa and Sonoma county are impacting coastal areas of the state nearby, but likely aren’t contributing to air quality problems locally, Baruffaldi said. Those fires, known collectively as the Glass Fire Complex, are burning in ares that didn’t experience wildfires over the last few years; firefighters have had a difficult time gaining the upper hand against the Glass Fire Complex because of the copious amount of burn fuel coupled with extreme weather conditions that have caused localized fires to start easily and spread quickly.
The Glass Fire and several others started last weekend shortly after the National Weather Service issued a Red Flag Warning, which it typically does when hot temperatures, dry conditions and gusty winds elevate wildfire dangers.
Baruffaldi said Solano County might continue to experience seasonally warmer weather through the rest of the week, but he doesn’t expect the agency will have to issue a Fire Weather Watch or similar advisory for a while.
Cooler temperatures are expected for Solano County starting this weekend, he said.
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