Smoke slowly being blown out of Tahoe
While the American Fire burning near Foresthill is at 78 percent containment, the Rim Fire near Yosemite is at 7 percent containment.
Both are continuing to bring smoke into the Lake Tahoe Basin, Truckee and western Nevada. Winds helped blow some of the smoke out of the basin on Saturday, but the smell remains this morning even though there is more blue sky compared to the last few days.
A dense smoke advisory from the National Weather Service in Reno remains in effect until 8pm Aug. 25 for the basin and points east, including parts of Alpine County. A lake wind advisory is in effect for the same time period
The American Fire has burned 24,135 acres. Crews are being released to go fight other fires as full containment is expected Sept. 1.
The Rim Fire is at 133,980 acres.
“The Rim incident is expected to continue to exhibit very large fire growth due to extremely dry fuels and inaccessible terrain. Rapid fire growth and extreme fire behavior are hampering suppression efforts,” fire officials said.
Nearly 5,000 structures remain threatened.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
Is it safe/advisable to travel to Lake Tahoe at this time? My boyfriend and I have a vacation booked for South Lake Tahoe for one week starting on Wednesday, Aug. 28th, and this would be the first time for both of us at Tahoe. We are hoping to see beautiful sights and hike, not be breathing in smoke/polluted air. Please advise! We will need to book for a later day or change travel destinations tomorrow if it’s not a good idea to come to Tahoe at this time. Thank you!
Satu,
Air kept improving today, blue sky … don’t change your plans. Come have fun!
LTN staff
Oh great! That is such a relief. Thank you for responding. I do want to see blue skies!
My Family and I have reservations to stay at South Lake Tahoe this weekend for Labor Day. I have a 15 month old. Is it safe to still continue with our plans on going? We also planned on hiking at Angora Lake. Has the fire and smoke ruined the beautiful sight seeing there?
Satu & Delle – sorry to say that the smoke is very bad, has been bad for almost two weeks and will continue – the smoke may or may not get better or worse, but regardless, it is not the time to come to Tahoe.
I am very sorry but now is not the time – – just wanted to give you the honest skinny of what is up here. Please come another time when you can fully enjoy the beauty as well as everything Tahoe has to offer!
The smoke comes and goes in the Tahoe Basin, I heard it was clear and clean this AM. And then some days its like this.
Its a hit or miss proposition. If you are staying in a Big Casino hotel The Air conditioning will give you a reprieve if the smoke rolls in.
Several Out door sporting events have been canceled due to bad air. the fire is still Raging
“Satu,
Air kept improving today, blue sky … don’t change your plans. Come have fun!
LTN staff”
That is an unbelievably deceitful comment.
There was no reason on August 25th to expect that the smoke would get any better.
Cosa,
I agree with you. I believed it at first. But I really needed to be told directly whether or not it was really going to be okay to continue with our plans of going to tahoe this weekend, so I called the fire department at south Lake Tahoe this evening and asked what the status was with the fire, smoke and air quality and the lady i spoke with told me it was still very bad. The air quality there is still unhealthy. She said she wanted us to go there to have fun but the honest truth was that she advised we shouldn’t go there and that we should reschedule our reservations.
Hello my family and I should be going on Sunday and stay one night. My children are eight and seven is it safe to go up there with my family.
Rod5: It was beautiful today! You should be safe in Lake Tahoe tomorrow as much of the smoke went around us today and we should see more of the same tomorrow. May be periods of some high smoke blowing through, but overall. Enjoy…fireworks at 8:30 pm!
Yeah, the professionals got it wrong this time. The past two days we’ve had beautiful mornings and evenings with a little bit of smoke in the middle of the day. And the agencies were still saying dangerous air. Oops. Scared away visitors, and it turned out they should have come.
We are all just guessing what each day will bring.
Yeah why don’t they have a time machine.
“Yeah, the professionals got it wrong this time.”
Oops.
Have you been outside today?
So wrong, so consistently.
“We are all just guessing what each day will bring.” The last sentence of my comment.
So, Fish, don’t you have anything better to do than to stalk and belittle people? We had two nice days, and today is a mix of overcast and smoke. Who knows what tomorrow will look like? Or this evening, for that matter. Go get a life.
The professionals aren’t ‘just’ guessing. I’ve been following the various models and planned my last few days accordingly. I slept in and didn’t miss anything.
‘Turns out they should have come’
Sure, if they don’t mind 1/2 of 1 day without smoke.
Yeah, I watch assorted weather predictions, satellite maps, etc, also. Golly, isn’t it amazing what you can do with an internet connection????
Different sources were making vastly different predictions.
Science cannot predict the future. Only God knows that.
Much to your consternation.
That’s not fair.
People who deny science don’t deserve the products scientists create.
Also, which weather models did you use? Do you know what Zulu time is? It is pretty important if you are trying to interpret models.