Smoke across all of south Idaho and beginning to impact the north

Today’s air quality is forecast to be in the Good to Very Unhealthy range. Folks around the Central Mountains fires could experience brief periods of Hazardous air quality.

The fires in the Central Mountains of Idaho are generating areas of thick smoke and haze across portions of the Central Mountains, South Idaho, and East Idaho. This afternoon, smoke from the Central Mountains will drift into the Magic Valley, the Treasure Valley, and East Idaho. Limited clearing is expected for North Idaho this afternoon, when the winds drive the smoke and haze southward, although light smoke and haze will move south from British Columbia into the Idaho Panhandle later this evening. As temperatures decrease tonight, lingering smoke can become trapped under surface temperature inversions and raise local AQI levels until the inversions break later the in morning, offering limited clearing.

Tomorrow morning, patchy smoke and haze will begin to drift into the Clearwater Basin from fires in the Central Mountains. Easterly winds will nudge areas of thick smoke across South and East Idaho westward and into Oregon with limited clearing expected for East Idaho. With the upper-level ridging strengthening, near surface smoke and haze will persist across most of the state.

HRRR-NCEP Near Surface Smoke model initialized at 6 a.m. MDT September 4, 2024 shows areas of smoke and haze from local fires in the Central Mountains extending across South Idaho into East Idaho. Light to patchy smoke and haze are visible over North Idaho.