Bay Area Sizzles; Air Quality Suffers
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) - Bay Area residents soaked up another day of sweltering temperatures Monday as the Bay Area Air Quality Management District declared another Spare the Air Day.
Monday marked the third day in a row the District declared such a warning, calling on residents to limit polluting activities. People in the Bay Area were also advised to keep their windows and blinds closed in an effort to keep the cool overnight air in, as opposed to the oppressive heat blanketing the region.
KCBS Holly Quan Reporting:
Like the Saturday and Sunday Spare the Air Days, there was no free public transit offered Monday. Still, local officials called on commuters to carpool or otherwise limit their driving. Auto emissions and hot weather, they said, are a bad combination on such hot days.
Get Current Temperatures, Forecast For Your Area
"We do hear from our surveys that people do reduce their driving and they take transit and carpool, or maybe they just don't take that trip that day and put it off until later in the week," said the district's Christine Roselius. "We're happy with that, but there's always a lot more that can be done."
The concern, even very early Monday morning, was that air quality was not good in the Bay Area.
"Well, right now we're expecting unhealthy for sensitive groups designations in the South Bay," warned Roselius. "It's rare that we get above that, and we did see that a couple of years ago when we had forest fires in the area."
Cooler weather was forecast for Tuesday, with fog expected to return later in the week, helping to clear out the haze and pollution.
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