After weeks of unhealthy air, clean skies settle across Sonoma County

Three-year-old Santino Gonella's eyes grew wide as a cyclist crossing Helen Putnam Regional Park zipped by on Wednesday afternoon, and snapped his head around in awe as he contemplated the potential.

The Petaluma youngster is still honing his bicycle skills, and his older sisters, Laila, 6, and Rae, 4, wasted no time in teasing him over it.

For their dad, Rosti Gonella, a family fishing trip to the 216-acre park was a welcome escape, especially for his wife, who was having some “me time” at home after weeks cooped up indoors because of unrelenting wildfire smoke that suffocated the region.

The expansive vistas of Sonoma County’s autumn countryside came into clearer focus Wednesday when residents were greeted with the cleanest air in a month, and pollutant counts plummeted to their lowest levels since August.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District let its unprecedented 30-day Spare the Air alert expire Wednesday, and was expected to issue an air quality advisory instead so residents remain vigilant and avoid any unnecessary burning, district spokesperson Aaron Richardson said.

After registering unhealthy, triple-digit air quality index counts for the past week as record-breaking fires burned throughout the North Coast and Oregon, a steady onshore wind pattern brought clean air from the ocean Wednesday, helping the county post an air quality index score of 9. Readings from zero to 50 are considered good air quality.

“(My wife is) at home relaxing, so I decided to take them out today,” Gonella said as he looked down at his children. “The unhealthy air has been tough for everyone. It’s good to get out, good for morale.”

A blitz of wildfires along the West Coast, including nearly 800,000-acre August Complex fires torching forests in Mendocino and Humboldt counties, have spewed ash and thick smoke into the air and recently had blanketed most of California in unhealthy air. Closer to home the LNU Lightning Complex blazes, which included the Walbridge fire in northwesern Sonoma County, ignited Aug. 17 by a lightning storm are almost entirely contained.

Cal Fire reported Wednesday that 3.3 million acres have burned across the state this year. By Tuesday, the smoke had reached the East Coast, filling the sky with a familiar haze that at times has colored the sun an apocalyptic orange. The dramatic skies grabbed the attention of the nation, as well as President Donald Trump and Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, both of whom visited California this week to weigh in on the fires and the role of climate change in their unprecedented scale.

But in the North Bay, blue skies and the preferred yellow sun were back overhead on Wednesday, the first of three days with healthy, clean air across the region.

The combination of a large, low-pressure system resting off the Pacific Coast near Washington and high pressure in the southwest helped push smoke to the north and clear the Bay Area skies, district meteorologist Jarrett Claiborne said.

But air quality models predicted a potential return of unhealthy air over the weekend, Richardson said, and that could prompt another Spare the Air alert.

“A whole month of poor air quality is nothing we’ve experienced before,” he said. “It’s a good time to get out and get some fresh air — for the next couple days at least.”

That advice was heeded by a group of essential workers, three of whom work at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, who spent a long morning hiking and fishing at Helen Putnam with their dogs, Kilo and Koda.

Kyle E., 31, of Santa Rosa, who declined to provide his last name, said they’ve still tried to enjoy the outdoors, even with the hazy air as a constant the past few weeks. The intensity of the work during the pandemic requires time in nature to keep them balanced, he said.

“It’s not orange,” he said, noting the color of the sun. “It’s nice to fish and not feel like you’re on the plains of Tatooine.”

You can reach Staff Writer Yousef Baig at 707-521-5390 or yousef.baig@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @YousefBaig.