Wildfire smoke and a change in the wind pattern triggers air quality alert in the Bay Area for Wednesday, August 18, 2021.
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA - The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has issued Spare the Air alerts for Thursday and Friday due to smoke from numerous wildfires around Northern California and further north in Oregon and Washington that continues to come into the region.
The air district had previously issued air quality advisories for the two days but had said it did not expect air quality in the region to be bad enough to exceed federal standards and prompt the more serious Spare the Air alert, during which wood burning is banned both indoors and outdoors.
"There's a huge smoke plume over the Bay Area ... it had been trickling down a little bit but mostly staying healthy at ground level," air district spokesman Aaron Richardson said. "The fires everywhere have just kicked up so much yesterday and today, so there are higher levels than expected."
The air quality wasn't exceeding federal health levels in most of the region as of midday Thursday but was expected to deteriorate as the day goes along, Richardson said.
If people smell smoke, they should stay inside with windows and doors closed, and set their air conditioning or car vent systems to recirculate air to prevent outside air from coming inside their building or vehicle.
The air district will monitor air quality in the region and determine if more Spare the Air alerts will be necessary over the weekend, but Richardson said there is "some hope there will be a wind shift and a little bit of a system coming in" that will push the smoke out of the Bay Area.
People can follow the latest air quality readings here.