California smoke poses area threat

Dan Kulin

Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2002 | 10:59 a.m.

Smoke billowing from a California forest fire could prompt a public health advisory in Clark County if smoke, which clouded the Las Vegas sky Tuesday, reaches the ground, air quality officials said.

Early today, three air quality stations in the Las Vegas Valley were recording harmful dust particles above 150 on the air quality index, borderline unhealthy for all individuals, and putting the valley at risk of its eighth unhealthful air quality day of the year. Last year, there was just one unhealthful day in Las Vegas.

"We are monitoring the situation and waiting for information from the National Weather Service to determine whether we will issue a health advisory," Femi Durosinmi, air quality monitoring supervisor at the County Department of Air Quality Management, said today. "If the trend keeps going as it is we could have a possible exceedence today." The Craig Road station was recording a level of 239 -- the highest of any in the valley -- at 9 a.m. today. However, the readings are averaged over a 24-hour period and the air is not considered unhealthy unless the daily average exceeds 150 on the index.

White smoke from the fire more than 200 miles away reached Las Vegas on Tuesday and might be seen here again until either the fire goes out or it is blown away by the wind, Durosinmi said.

The fire in the Angeles National Forest outside Los Angeles started Monday afternoon and covered 12,000 acres Tuesday. The fire was 10 percent contained Tuesday.

Steve Downs, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Las Vegas office, said the smoke was carried to Las Vegas by a southwest wind, and the wind is not expected to change direction anytime soon.

"There's not much wind coming and any coming is from that direction anyway," Downs said.

The smoke appeared thickest around Las Vegas Tuesday afternoon, at times almost blocking the view of some of the surrounding mountains.

"We're just getting the full impact of the fire now," Durosinmi said. "We were expecting (the smoke) in the morning, but it didn't get here until the afternoon."

The smoke did not noticeably affect Las Vegas air quality Tuesday because the smoke was not close enough to ground level, Durosinmi said. But if the smoke is here again today or tomorrow and it drops to ground-level, the smoke could prompt a public health advisory, he said.

In the Los Angeles area, the South Coast Air Quality Management District issued a public health warning Tuesday, advising people to avoid unnecessary outdoor activity in areas where the smoke was present.

In Las Vegas, smoke from forest fires prompted a health alert on Aug. 19, and at other times in the past, Durosinmi said.

In addition to smoky skies, Las Vegas residents saw the temperature reach 101 degrees on Tuesday, Downs said.

At this time of year, the high temperature is normally around 90 degrees. The record high temperature for Sept. 24, is 106 degrees, he said.

Downs said the high temperature in Las Vegas will be in the mid-90s today and tomorrow. Friday's high temperature will be in the low 90s and the high temperature will be around 90 Saturday through Tuesday, he said.