Spare the Air alerts issued through Wednesday due to wildfire smoke

Wildfires raging in Northern California continue to impact air quality in the Bay Area, leading to some of the worst Air Quality Index readings in the world last weekend.

In Sonoma County on Sunday, air quality remained in the “unhealthy” category, which ranges from 151-200, out of 500, on the Air Quality Index. Sebastopol’s 182 was the worst, followed by Guerneville, which is tucked just south of the Walbridge fire.

Poor air quality prompted the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to extend Spare the Air alerts through Wednesday. The alerts prohibit wood burning and encourage residents to reduce vehicle travel that contributes to unhealthy air. And that unhealthy air was a fact of life Sunday for all but one air quality monitoring station in Sonoma County – a sensor at Doran Beach in Bodega Bay.

“The fact of the matter is, if you go outside and you don’t see any blue, and it smells like smoke, it’s pretty bad,” said Sonoma County Supervisor Shirlee Zane, who sits on the Bay Area Air Quality Management District board. “That means there’s a lot of particulate matter out there. It can get into lungs and arteries, and cause strokes and heart attacks.”

Elsewhere, from the Sonoma Valley to Petaluma to Cloverdale, residents were advised to avoid unnecessary trips outdoors. And on Saturday, the air was so bad in Healdsburg, due west of the Walbridge fire, it beat out a record San Francisco reading set during the Camp fire in November 2018, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data.

Healdsburg’s Air Quality Index reading Sunday, according to a temporary monitoring station, was 292, according to the EPA’s monitoring data.

Northern California’s air quality, according to a worldwide, realtime tracker, was in line Sunday afternoon with some of the worst air quality spots in the world, matching readings in South Africa, India and China.

Check air quality in your area here.