Northern California wildfire expected to push smoke into SF Bay Area

Smoke models Monday morning showed sooty air from a wildfire burning in Northern California pushing into the San Francisco Bay Area, filling skies with a light haze.

The Six Rivers Lightning Complex Fire comprises a dozen blazes that ignited by lightning strikes in Humboldt and Trinity counties near Willow Creek on Aug. 5. The fires burned 19,292 acres as of Monday morning and are threatening communities along the Trinity River, Cal Fire said. The fire is 17% contained. Fire activity is expected to increase Monday afternoon as triple-digit temperatures warm inland California amid a brief heat wave.

Farther north, the McKinney Fire, California's largest wildfire so far this year at 60,392 acres, is 95% contained, Cal Fire said.

National Weather Service forecaster Dalton Behringer said northerly winds are pushing smoke from the Six Rivers Fire to the south.

"You may have noticed a little haze this morning," Behringer said. "It looks like it should remain around the Bay Area in low concentrations today and tomorrow. We're not seeing anything that's really going to degrade the air quality. Tomorrow night it will start to clear out a little more."

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued an air quality advisory for Monday because of the smoke's arrival. A Spare the Air Alert, signaling more severe air quality conditions that exceed national standards, is not in effect. The management district warned that isolated pockets of air pollution are possible at higher elevations. In the mountains of the Bay Area, you could smell smoke.