Drift smoke from California fires may ease across Carson, Reno and northern Nevada areas
Drift smoke from California wildfires may begin to improve in some areas of western Nevada including the Reno and Carson City areas, according to forecasters with the National Weather Service.
Smoke from California fires continues to drift into areas of Northern Nevada, The latest high resolution smoke simulations would indicate some improvement Monday afternoon, with most areas seeing a general haze.
As of around 5 a.m. Monday morning, air quality in Carson City and Reno was listed by airnow.gov "unhealthy for sensitive groups" while in the Minden Gardnerville area the air quality was in the "moderate" range.
Unfortunately for those locations immediately downwind of ongoing fires such as Quincy, Portola, Susanville, parts of the Sierra Valley, and Coleville, it will remain rather smokey and air quality will still be unhealthy.
Smoke is forecast to return overnight for most areas, but this may begin to improve by daybreak Monday due to north winds associated with a dry cold frontal passage. There is some uncertainty with how quickly the smoke will dissipate in valleys, but a marked improvement should be noticeable by mid-morning at the latest across much of Western Nevada including Reno and Carson City.
However, some areas closer to fires will still see smoke and haze impacts Monday including the portions of northeast California, in addition to Topaz, Walker, and Coleville which are being impacted by the new Slink Fire.
By Monday night into Tuesday, winds shift to the east northeast behind the dry cold front, which will transport smoke away from the region, finally improving air quality most everywhere in our region for at least a couple days.
The latest air quality can always be found at fire.airnow.gov. See Carsonweather.com for forecast updates for the Carson City region.