Weather Service: Poor air quality around Northern Nevada mainly from Dixie Fire
Widespread thick smoke, mainly from the Dixie Fire, will continue to cause poor air quality around the Carson City region Monday, according to the National Weather Service.
Forecasters say wind changes and an increased chance of rain may provide for some improvements late in the day around the Reno-Tahoe and Eastern Sierra, but, otherwise, the air quality will continue to be degraded for at least the next few days, especially at night and in the mornings.
The Dixie Fire is burning in the Feather River Canyon along with the Fly Fire. The Dixie Fire is over 190,000 acres with 21 percent containment and the Fly Fire is 4,300 acres with 5 percent containment. There are over 5,000 fire personnel combined fighting the two fires.
Meanwhile, firefighters continue to make progress on the 67,764 acre Tamarack Fire burning south of Gardnerville, reaching 45 percent containment as of Monday morning.
The weather service advises people to limit the intensity and duration of outdoor activities. Poor air quality could result in postponed or cancelled outdoor events.
Thunderstorms will play a role in smoke intensity due to both rainfall chances for ongoing fires and erratic outflow winds. Smoke forecast predictablity is lower than usual going into this week, according to the weather service.
A rather solid monsoon moisture surge will bring increasing thunderstorm chances to the area through much of the coming week. Latest model simulations suggest the best storm coverage will be today, Wednesday, and Friday-Saturday, with somewhat less coverage for Tuesday and Thursday.
"Nocturnal showers with isolated thunderstorms are possible late tonight into daybreak Tuesday and also Saturday night. Given the unusual time of day, this could catch many people off-guard," according to the weather service.
A significant concern with these storms is the potential for heavy rainfall and flash flooding on recent burn scars such as the Beckwourth Complex and ongoing fires such as the Tamarack Fire. It only takes 5-10 minutes of heavy rains to result in debris flows on these burn areas. Additional impacts include outflow winds to 45 mph, lightning with new fire starts outside storm cores, and small hail.