Carson City, Dayton area air quality Sunday afternoon at 'unhealthy' level
Submitted by Jeff Munson on Sun, 09/11/2022 - 8:35am
UPDATE 4:54PM: Air quality around Carson City and Dayton dropped into the "unhealthy" category late Sunday afternoon, according to airnow.gov. Air quality in the Carson Valley was in the "unhealthy for sensitive groups" category for the Gardnerville and Minden areas.
***
Degraded air quality continues around the region as drift smoke from the Mosquito Fire burning in Placer and El Dorado counties in California moves across the Lake Tahoe Basin and into the Carson City area and Western Nevada valleys.
Air quality at around 8:20 a.m. Sunday morning in the Carson City and Dayton areas was in the "unhealthy for sensitive groups" category and "unhealthy" in the Reno area, according to airnow.gov.
Degraded air quality is expected to continue across the region with area sensors reporting "unhealthy" to "hazardous air quality" due to the influx of smoke influx from the Mosquito wildfire.
According to the National Weather Service in Reno, there may be some minor improvements by late Sunday morning with another swath of smoke moving in across the Tahoe Basin and Sierra Front late Sunday afternoon and evening, which could worsen air quality and reduce surface visibility to around 1-3 miles.
The Mosquito Fire, which started Sept. 6, is near Oxbow Reservoir east of Forest Hill in Placer County, has burned 41,443 acres and is 10 percent contained as of Sunday morning, according to Cal Fire. There are 1,700 firefighting personnel on the fire.
As far as a break from the heat, much cooler conditions are on the way as a trough approaches the region, according to the weather service in its latest forecast discussion. Expect highs Monday afternoon to only reach the mid-80s across western Nevada with mid 70s for Sierra valleys.
Highs aren't expected to show major changes each day from Tuesday through next weekend, mainly in the lower-mid 80s for lower elevations and lower-mid 70s for Sierra valleys.
Overnight lows will trend downward from the 50s in lower elevations, 35-45 degrees for Sierra valleys Tuesday night to the 45-55 degree range for most lower elevations/30s near the Sierra for the remainder of the upcoming week, NWS forecasters said.
