LAKE COUNTY – A fresh blanket of smoky haze obscured Lake County”s usually blue skies and mountainous horizon Wednesday as the wind shifted to bring smoke from wildfires still raging north of Lake County.
Most of the smoke is coming into Lake County”s air basin on west to northwest winds from lightning fires in the Soda Complex in the Mendocino National Forest and the Lime Complex in Trinity and Tehama counties, according to a Wednesday Lake County Air Quality Management District press release. Lake County”s air rated 43 on the federal Air Quality Index (AQI) Wednesday, according to a 3 p.m. estimate.
The AQI rating put Lake County”s air in the “good” to “moderate” category, with an AQI of 50 or more considered unhealthy for medically sensitive individuals.
Confined valleys where smoke settles may experience moderate to unhealthy impacts for sensitive groups, according to the release.
West to southwest winds kept the smoke out of Lake County”s air basin last week, according to the release, when AQI numbers ranged from 13 to 39.
