The air quality in Boise and the Treasure Valley deteriorated quickly Thursday, with smoke blown in overnight from the Wapiti and Nellie wildfires in Central Idaho — the two largest fires burning in the Boise National Forest.
Jay Breidenbach with the National Weather Service in Boise said dry and windy conditions Wednesday produced more smoke, which was blown south and then drifted west.
“The smoke from (the Wapiti and Nellie fires) drifted south out of the mountains down into the Snake River Plain, and then overnight the smoke turned more so that it was drifting towards the west downhill,” Breidenbach told the Idaho Statesman. “That has continued this morning as it came through Boise. A pretty thick band of smoke, and that is continuing now to drift west towards the western Idaho border.”
There’s not much good news ahead, either: Breidenbach said the smoke would continue to impact the Boise area for the next several days.
Michael Toole with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality said the air quality over Boise as of Thursday afternoon at about 2 was a 144 reading (orange), which is unhealthy for certain groups. The DEQ sent out an updated air quality advisory of orange at 3 p.m. Thursday for Ada, Canyon and Elmore counties.
Most of the Treasure Valley averaged a moderate air quality (yellow) within the previous 24 hours, but by 3 p.m. Thursday, the live DEQ readings online were showing numbers as high as 174 (red) at certain monitoring spots.
The lightning-caused Wapiti Fire has scorched nearly 90,000 acres in Custer County and remained uncontained as of Thursday. The fire increased tenfold in size in a little over a week — it was 9,000 acres on Aug. 20. More than 800 personnel are working to contain it.
The Nellie Fire is part of the Middle Fork Complex and has spread to 52,974 acres with only 5% containment, so both fires will continue to pour out smoke.
A community meeting concerning the fires will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Stanley Community Center with updates from the Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team. It will also be streamed live on the Wapiti Fire Information Facebook page, and shared on YouTube.