While there are fires in Oregon, California, Nevada, and Idaho, the Truckee Meadows has fortunately escaped a good portion of the smoke. Yes there has been some time to time, but there’s been more sunshine than haze. While there are some fires in California most of them are north of the Bay Area. The Biscar Fire is the biggest fire this season in California. Which is located in Northeast California. If the flow comes out of the northwest, then yes, we could get some smoke to move into the Reno area.
A west wind also pulls in some smoke from the Elephant Fire to the North Valleys and into Fernley. Moving from west to east. You could see it settling in Tuesday afternoon and evening. The wind direction is forecasted to stay out of the west or southwest over the next week.
Our flow typically comes out of the southwest, but thankfully there aren’t really any big fires in that direction as of now. Oregon on the other hand is dealing with quite a few big fires and plenty of smoke. Central and Eastern Oregon are a lot like Reno, dry due to the rain shadow effect. Western Oregon is typically wet during the winter and dry during the summer. An east wind could bring in some smoke to western Oregon as well.
There are also some fires in Central Nevada. Which means if we get an east wind, then smoke would move into the Truckee Meadows too. The New Pass Fire is burning on the Lander County border, and has burned over 23,000 acres.
Smoke could also spill into far Northern Washoe and Humboldt Counties from the fires burning in Oregon. The air quality in Reno is forecasted to be in the moderate range.
