Northern Nevada air quality expected to reach 'very unhealthy' to 'hazardous' levels Thursday
UPDATE 10:52AM: Northern Nevada air quality is expected to reach “very unhealthy” to “hazardous” levels Thursday afternoon due to smoke from the Mosquito Fire burning in Northern California, according to an alert Thursday morning from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection.
NDEP is forecasting air quality to continue to degrade and advises the public to monitor the air quality index (AQI) at airnow.gov.
NDEP and local officials will continue to closely monitor smoke impacts and air quality in Northern Nevada. You can also follow the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Twitter feed for more information (@NevDCNR). Go here for tips on protecting your family from wildfire smoke.
The AQI focuses on health impacts that individuals may experience within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. Scroll in the photo section to see the chart above.
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Degraded air quality from California wildfires and the industrial fire between Fernley and Fallon will unfortunately stick around western Nevada for a while, with the thickness of the smoke depending on the wind direction and intensities of the fires, according to National Weather Service forecasters.
Smoke from the Mosquito Fire in Placer County, Calif., arrived overnight Wednesday into the Carson City, Reno and Carson Valley areas, and has eased some in the valleys with light haze, but remains heavier at Lake Tahoe.
According to the National Weather Service, the fire will continue to impact major population areas, particularly the Tahoe Basin, Alpine and Douglas counties. Though the Reno/Sparks areas will have smoke, it may be more intermittent. However, current high-resolution models favor late Friday into Saturday for these areas to be most impacted if the fire continues to grow.
The region's air quality Thursday is expected to range from moderate to unhealthy for sensitive groups categories, according to airnow.gov.
Elsewhere, a new wildfire started Wednesday in the Warner Mountains in northeast Modoc County. Models have yet to even initialize this fire, but it is burning hot and residents in northern Washoe, Lassen, Modoc, and portions of Pershing counties can anticipate smoke impacts from this wildfire, according to the weather service.
There's also two fires burning in Yosemite National Park, however, those fire are not putting out as much smoke in the direction of western Nevada.
Smoke from the railroad tie yard in Hazen, Nev., should be of concern for people in the areas of Fallon, Fernley and Silver Springs.
Because of the unhealthy nature of this smoke, the weather service advises people to follow local/state suggestions on mitigating health impacts.