Bay Area air quality officials have issued a smoke advisory for Sunday across the Bay Area, due to smoke and ash from the County Fire in Yolo County.
If you stepped outside today to see your car covered in ash or smelled smoke, that’s a sign you should try to stay indoors and close your windows.
Air monitoring sensors set up by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, however, say the air is good to moderate.
That’s because smoke and ash are blowing into the Bay Area in narrow streams and that means they’re missing the air quality sensors and creating misleading data.
“Even though the smoke is currently bypassing our monitors that doesn’t mean people should not take steps to protect their health and that they’re not impacted,” said Sarah Zahedi, a spokeswoman for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
The district’s website recommends keeping indoor air as clean as possible by keeping your windows and doors closed and running your air conditioner on recycle or recirculate. But it also cautions that staying inside with windows closed in extreme heat without an air conditioner could be dangerous. In these cases, people are advised to seek alternative shelter.
People with asthma, heart or lung disease, as well as older adults and children are advised to be especially careful.
Zahedi says air quality is not expected to improve until Tuesday when the wind changes direction.
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