Is Burning A Fire At Home Really Contributing To Bad Air Quality?

KPIX 5 Morning Weather Anchor Roberta Gonzales answers the questions you never get to ask on-air.

Q: Today is another Spare The Air Day. How many days has it been now? And why the bad air?

A: The Bay Area TIED a record (11) for the number of consecutive days with today's Winter Spare The Air Alert. The old record was set in December 2013.

When wood and other solid fuels are burned, the smoke contains fine particulate air pollution can pass deep into the lungs and cause serious health effects to the public. High levels of fine particulates can result in difficulty breathing, it can aggravate asthma and even cause premature death for people with heart or lung disease. Winter weather conditions can trap wood smoke close to the ground concentrating the air pollution to unhealthy levels. When these conditions occur, wood smoke is the largest portion (approximately 33%) of the wintertime fine particulate matter in the Bay Area.

As of now, we are forecasting Northwest winds 10 to 20 mph Tuesday. The Air Quality will be moderate, but NOT as Unhealthy as today.