Smoke from the Rices Fire burning in Nevada County was expected to impact air quality in portions of Northern California, the National Weather Service said Wednesday.
According to meteorologists, the short answer is no.
The Bay Area was expected to have back-to-back low pressure systems with onshore winds for the next week and a half that will keep any smoke from wildfires burning east of the Bay Area region eastward, said NWS Meteorologist Drew Peterson.
The smoke “might move to the north of Reno, Nevada, and toward Salt Lake City, but it does not look like at this point that we will see any smoke over the San Francisco Bay Area,” Peterson said.
Smoke from the Rices Fire on Wednesday was moving towards interior areas and the foothills, north of Interstate 80 in the Sierra Nevada, of Northern California, weather officials in Sacramento said.
A photo of the Rice FIre blazing in the area of Rice’s Crossing in Nevada County.
Cal Fire NEUHowever, Peterson said, a high pressure system is expected to descend over most of the country next weekend that could potentially move smoke from wildfires move west towards the Bay Area.
“There’s an increasing chance that if there’s a fire burning next weekend, that’s the first possibility we could see smoke move our way but it’s not a certainty,” he said.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District had no alerts issued for Wednesday, with most of the region experiencing good air quality, according to The Chronicle’s air quality map.
Jessica Flores (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jessica.flores@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jesssmflores
