Update: The Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued a Spare the Air Alert for the Bay Area for Thursday and Friday. Read the full story here.
End of update.
The gray haze over San Francisco isn’t just summer fog. It’s also smoke from a series of wildfires burning on the West Coast, which has pushed air quality into unhealthy levels.
The Air Quality Index for San Francisco Thursday was 152, qualifying as “unhealthy.” At this level, even those without respiratory diseases may begin to experience negative side effects, such as coughing, trouble breathing and irritated eyes and airways. Parts of the East Bay, including Oakland and Berkeley, and the South Bay were also in the “unhealthy” air quality range.