Return of smoky air season gives Fresno residents a hazy, coughing feeling of deja vu
When the swarm of red dots overtook us a couple days ago, I did what every sensible Fresno-area lung breather should.
Closed all the windows in the house. Then replaced the air filter in the HVAC system with a beefier type that removes smoke and smog particulates — purportedly.
Thanks to air pollution monitoring websites like PurpleAir.com, it was actually possible to “see” those red dots (each representing individual dirty air readings) drift their way down the San Joaquin Valley on Wednesday as shifting winds funneled smoke from multiple Northern California wildfires in our direction.
And when the smoky air did arrive, transforming the sky into a gray cotton ball that nearly blots out the sun, the feeling was oh so familiar. The exact same thing happened one year ago, almost to the very day, after 15,000 lightning strikes across the Bay Area, Northern California and the Sierra Nevada ignited five massive complex fires that burned a combined 2.2 million acres.
For Fresno-area residents, the siege was only beginning. Our air remained smoky right through Labor Day weekend, when the Creek Fire sprung to life in an overgrown canyon 40 miles northeast of town. That gray cotton ball hung around past Thanksgiving.
Will the same thing happen this year? Will it keep happening? Is being stuck indoors for months at a time, worried about the air inside and out, simply the price of living here? Considering the scientifically proven harmful effects of dirty air — there are even studies linking wildfire smoke to increased COVID-19 cases and deaths — is that price too high?
Those are the questions I ask myself each time we’re swarmed by red dots on PurpleAir. Surely some of you are as well. Because life at the bottom of an ashtray isn’t much fun.
Return of smoky air season in Fresno
Some of us are born here and have chosen to stay. Others move here, either for a job, because of the relatively low cost of living or for any number of reasons. In doing so, we all accept two realities: The summer heat for which the Valley is well known. And the air pollution, which gets less attention but has a more deleterious effect on our collective health.
Smoky air season, which in Fresno is wedged between summer and fall, forces a reconsideration. Do smaller house payments or cheaper rent make up for months of inhaling fumes from Mother Nature’s tailpipe?
That’s a question each of us must answer for ourselves or as a family. But it’s one nobody can ignore. The red dots may go away for a day or so (we enjoyed a few clean air days in early August), but they inevitably return.
Throughout other times of the year, most of the air pollution in Fresno and the Valley is of our own making. We produce it right here, with our car and truck exhaust, agricultural equipment, freight trains, dairy cows, restaurant charbroilers and wood-burning fireplaces. We can do something about those sources, or hold the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District accountable for failing to.
Where will this year’s Creek Fire ignite?
The PM 2.5s and PM 10s carried in smoky air, pollutants that get inhaled by our lungs and absorbed into our bloodstreams, can’t be as easily categorized or contained. California’s wildfire woes are the result of decades of negligent forest management (mainly by the federal government), climate change and drought — factors that are largely beyond our control. Which only increases the feeling of helplessness.
Unfortunately, the only way out of this mess is more burning. Much, much more. The question is whether those fires come in the form of massive, uncontrolled blazes, or whether fire managers allow areas to burn intentionally.
Either way, the future is smoky.
Meanwhile, a new wildfire broke out Friday in the mountains east of Fresno near Dinkey Creek. Two are currently raging in the southern Sierra east of Bakersfield. Will any of these become this year’s Creek Fire? Or has that blaze yet to ignite? Only time, and the wind, will tell.
At some point, all these fires and accompanying smoke might drive this lifelong Californian someplace else. For now, though, it’s close the windows, replace the HVAC filter (every few months) and consider shopping for an air purifier.
Such is life at the bottom of an ashtray.
