‘Unhealthy’ air quality hits Albuquerque from California
By John Cardinale
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KOAT) — Waking up on Sunday morning hazy skies were apparent around Albuquerque.
“We’re having a lot of smoke today from California wildfires, and it’s pretty bad. We are in the unhealthy-for-everyone group, as far as air quality goes,” said Jeff Stonesifer who oversees air pollution programming for Albuquerque.
Because of the unhealthy air, Albuquerque is under a health alert as the air is not good to breathe.
“It’s unhealthy for everyone, that means that it starts to irritate the lungs of everyone, not just people with asthma or COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) or other chronic respiratory issues. So it’s really an issue for everyone. And everyone needs to severely limit their outdoor activity, especially any strenuous activity, and stay indoors as much as possible and just relax,” said Stonesifer.
Stonesifer said this is some of the worst smoke he’s seen in our area since the Wallow fire in 2011.
The smoke is able to get all the way to Albuquerque because nothing has disrupted its path.
“If there’s not a lot of showers and thunderstorms between here and California, then those particulates are just going to stay in the air and just keep going and going. There’s really nothing to remove them without showers and thunderstorms,” said Stonesifer.
The health alert expires Monday at noon but could be extended if things get worse.
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