If you’ve smelled smoke in the Bay Area over the past couple days, you're not alone.
However, it’s not due to the extreme heat blanketing the region.
The scent likely originates from southeastern Arizona, where evacuations have been ordered because of a fire that jumped containment lines, according to the National Weather Service.
According to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, this did not contribute to them issuing a Spare the Air alert through Friday. That was instead due to light winds and hot temperatures along with motor vehicle exhaust leading to unhealthy concentrations of ozone, or smog.
While the smoke is present, it is aloft and elevated, so it’s not expected to impact air quality.
The smell from the smoke is likely strongest in the foothills and the Santa Cruz Mountains.
"We realize that especially given last year’s fires there is that more enhanced concern," Gerry Diaz, a National Weather Service meteorologist, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "But we do want to emphasize that if smoke is being smelled, especially up in the mountains and on the foothills, that is due to that smoke coming in from fires that are well to our east."
After breaking out in the mountains in early June, fires southeast of Phoenix have ravaged 257 square miles of brush and forest. Canepa explained to the paper that high pressure above Northern California caused by the heat wave allowed the smoke to drift into the region.
Despite an excessive heat warning in effect until 9 p.m., no fire warnings have been issued in the Bay Area.
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