My husband, our dog and I are planning to drive to San Francisco and back along highway 101 starting on Sept.1. I was wondering if anyone has an update on what conditions are like with all the forest fires. If poor, we could delay our trip to mid to late September.
Thanks!
I Have a thread about current California wildfires that I am keeping updated. I am not tracking fires in Oregon and Washington.
The thing is, there is no way of knowing how things will be in two weeks. Certainly, smoke problems in Northern California have eased in the last week (really nice to see blue sky instead of sickly brow-yellow), but things can change in a hurry if there is a new fire, or, god forbid, an existing one flares up. Historically, Sept-Oct are high fire season, but with our “new normal,” who knows? On the other hand, mid-Sept. to mid-Oct is usually the best time of year to visit SF and the California Coast in terms of weather. Warmest and most likely to be fog-free. Just be aware that there are events in SF this time of year that eat up a lot of lodging.
I would suggest checked with the National Weather Service local websites, starting with the NWS national site. They track smoke and other air quality. Issues. The gray blacks on the maps are places with air quality alerts—almost always due to fires. They also track fire weather. A red flag warning (I only see one at the moment) means “conditions are really, really good for a fire to break out.”
You can enter a city and state or ZIP code to get a local forecast. There is also a mobile app available.
Edited to add: California Fire tracker. Up-to-date information on current and recent fires, as well as real time air quality info. The air quality data includes general smog stuff as well as smoke.
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