Local fires near Stanley and Kendrick adding to smoke impacts

Today’s air quality is forecast to be Good to Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups.

Local fires around the southern portion of North Idaho along with smoke from the Oregon fires have spiked the local AQI levels to UNHEATHLY FOR SENSITIVE GROUPS in parts of North Idaho. Patchy smoke and haze across South Idaho and the Central Mountains is slowly flowing north to west into the Central Mountains and towards the Treasure Valley. Limited dispersion of near surface smoke for South Idaho is expected this afternoon though the Bench Lake Fire south of Stanley is adding to this smoke and haze across portions of South Idaho. Overnight, the lingering smoke and haze can become trapped under surface inversions potentially raising AQI levels until inversions break later in the morning. North Idaho and the Treasure Valley can expect light haze tomorrow from Washington and Oregon fires. Highest AQI levels will be seen around the Texas Fire which is northeast of Kendrick and the Bench Lake Fire.

The RAP-NCEP Near Surface Smoke model initialized 8am MDT July 17^th, 2024 shows patchy smoke and haze over portions of the Central Mountains, South and East Idaho. Light smoke and haze are seen over North Idaho. Patchy smoke and haze will continue to drift north and west into the Central Mountains and Treasure Valley this afternoon. Inversions breaking, afternoon winds, and a trough moving through will aid in the mixing out of near surface smoke and haze across South Idaho. As temperatures decrease at night, inversions will begin to trap lingering smoke and haze raising the AQI levels. The Bench Lake Fire outside of Stanley is adding to the smoke concentrations across the Magic Valley and Central Mountains while the Texas Fire outside of Kendrick which is raising AQI levels across portions of North Idaho is barely seen in this model run.