Smoke Altered Plans

I live in the upper Olmos Basin right next to the Olmos Basin Golf Course. I was concerned about my plans for my walk as soon as I went outside this morning. There was only a slight, intermittent breeze.  It was very apparent a layer of light smoke from the many South Central Texas wildfires had settled into the basin.

My plan was to drive out to the Leon Creek Greenway, Fox Park trailhead and walk north towards UTSA Blvd. The further I drove northwest on IH 10, the thicker the smoke became. Even inside the car with the A/C running, my eyes were becoming irritated and I was getting a headache. My medical condition makes me sensitive to very low levels of smoke.

Undaunted, I exited the freeway at Callaghan and headed over to U. S. 281 to drive south thinking the smoke might be less of a problem on the south side of the county. By the time I reached U. S. 90, I realized the smoke was covering the entire Bexar County area.

There is an air quality alert for San Antonio today for high levels of ozone, but there is no mention of smoke that I can find anywhere on the web. The air quality people and the news people need to go outside, open their eyes, and take a deep breath.

On my way home, I stopped at Alamo Stadium with its perfect view of the downtown skyline and took the photos posted below. If that isn't smoke causing the haze, I would like to know what it is. I left the tops of the SAISD school buses in the one photo to show that the air looks clear relatively close-up even with a fair amount of smoke in the air.

Much closer than downtown to Alamo Stadium to the southeast is Fort Sam Houston. These two photos are of the post with the historic tower in the Ft Sam quadrangle. The smoke appears much thicker in this direction.

As long as the wind remains much below 10 mph and the inversion layer persists, the smoke will linger. Hopefully, there will be enough of a breeze to clear it out soon. There are two things that I now know will keep me from my nature walks: jury duty and atmospheric smoke.

Remember, even with the light wind, there is an extreme danger of wildfires. Be careful outside.

Late evening update:

The photos above were taken at about noon today. By 3 pm the smoke seemed to be clearing out a bit as the inversion layer broke down and the wind picked up a bit. I began to think I might be able to do an evening walk.

Shortly after 4 pm the Camp Bullis wildfire from yesterday reignited and the local media began wall to wall coverage. Smoke began to pour skyward from the fire and drift south over the city. While the fire was largely contained by 8 pm, here is a photo I took with my cell camera from one of my second floor windows of the sun setting through the smoke from the fire.

The local news media is finally acknowledging that the smokey haze over the city is a potential health hazard. It will likely be a problem for at least several days. The extreme wildfire danger will persist and likely get worse until we get some rain.

Update 11:18 am, Thursday, Sep. 8, 2011:

The reason the smoke was a major problem yesterday morning was because of the light to calm wind and especially the atmospheric inversion. An inversion occurs when there is cooler air at ground level with a layer of warmer air above it. Smoke particles get trapped in the lower cooler level and are unable to disburse into the higher layer.

If an inversion layer formed this morning, it dissipated before I was outside. The wind was also stronger this morning at 10 to 15 mph. While there is still smoke in the air giving the sky a brownish grey cast, the smoke at ground level is tolerable (at least for me medically speaking). The disadvantage to the higher wind speed, though, is that it increases the fire danger.

If tomorrow morning is similar to this morning and no new wildfires occur in or immediately upwind of Bexar County, I will be back out on the trail again. My biggest concern these days, obviously, isn't being caught on a trail in a flash flood. It's being caught in a remote section of a natural area in a wildfire. I can't overstate how exceedingly vulnerable the grass and woodland is to fire now.