Smoke from a distant fire leaves Las Vegas Valley hazy
You know the feeling when someone else's problem suddenly becomes yours?
That is precisely what happened to the Las Vegas Valley on Friday when the typically clear skies were polluted by a haze that settled in overnight.
According to Clark County's Air Quality Department, the pea soup's main ingredients derive from a wildfire somewhere else. The county quickly determined that the haze was not caused by dust because of complaints from residents who smelled smoke, instruments that can decipher dust from smoke and the way cameras showed the plumes roll into the valley.
The mystery Friday was the origin.
The county's air quality engineers said the smoke could have come from one of two fires in Arizona. Firefighters are monitoring several lightning-caused fires near Flagstaff and Williams, allowing them to burn to reduce the forests' vegetation, which otherwise might have fueled much larger and devastating blazes in the future.
"Smoke can travel a long, long distance," said Mike Sword, air quality engineering manager for the county. "It depends on how much smoke, what it encounters and the wind currents carrying it."
Sword said the county historically tracks the stream of smoke via satellite but could not pinpoint the exact location of the blaze, which might have been a fairly insignificant fire that never made the news.
"We've traced smoke to California, Arizona and even Mexico (in the past)," he said.
Six years ago, a dust storm that tore across the Gobi Desert in China made its way into the atmosphere and returned to Earth in Las Vegas. Dust is heavier than smoke and can still travel thousands of miles.
The haze began to dissipate about noon Friday.
Sword said a moderate inversion broke at about 9:30 a.m., causing light winds that ushered the smoggy air out of the valley. That, he said, is not unusual.
"The longest we've seen haze from smoke is three days," Sword said.
Contact reporter Adrienne Packer at apacker@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2904.
