Got the bad air blues? Rain is coming, says weather service
The Valley’s air quality remained poor Saturday, as smoke from California’s wildfires traveled across the state.
However, help from Mother Nature could arrive just in time for Thanksgiving. The National Weather Service is forecasting up to an 80 percent chance of rain Wednesday in the Valley and for much of California.
In the meantime, a high-pressure system sitting above the Valley will remain throughout the weekend, trapping smoke here, according to the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District.
Carlos Molina, meteorologist at the National Weather Service station in Hanford, said rain is expected to start hitting the northern Valley floor at about sunrise Wednesday. Light rain is expected throughout the day in Fresno starting at about 10 a.m., he said.
Stronger showers are predicted to arrive at nighttime Wednesday. Molina said that compared to the daytime forecast of tenth of an inch of rain, about three times that amount will fall on Wednesday night.
The upcoming showers are expected to be preceded by winds that will help push out smoke toward Nevada and clean up the air in time for rain to fall.
Rain will pour into Thanksgiving Day and will produce spotty shower activity throughout the day, Molina said. A second storm that is expected to remain mostly in Northern California will arrive Friday. With that storm, Fresno will see much less rain than expected in the first storm of the week.
Areas above 7,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada Mountains will get a dusting of snow as the first rains on Wednesday move east on Thursday. Next Friday’s storm is expected to last into Saturday.
Fresno’s air quality reached level five, the most hazardous level, overnight Friday, according to the air district. It has been hovering just below that, at a level four, throughout the day.
“While this is not going to be a heavy rain event, the fact that we’ve seen almost no rain for the month of October and the middle part of November, this is a welcome relief,” Molina said.
Meantime, the air district recommends staying indoors and keeping an eye on the young and the elderly. Another tip: consider changing home and car air filters.
Air quality alerts will remain in effect throughout the weekend and until the fires are extinguished, the weather service said. The Camp Fire near Chico is still burning, as is the Alder/Mountaineer Fire, five miles west of Camp Nelson.
To check current conditions in your area, visit the air pollution control district’s website at www.valleyair.org.
This story was originally published November 17, 2018 at 4:17 PM.