Beneficial Higher Humidity Comes to Southern California

Poor air quality has led to some schools being closed and the postponement of some outdoor sporting events.

Map courtesy: AccuWeather.com

(LOS ANGELES) - AccuWeather.com reports an increasing marine influence will continue to aid firefighters battling Los Angeles County's largest fire on record, as well as others in Southern California.

While more typical heat will still be a problem over the interior of California and the Intermountain West in general, higher humidity and an overall cooling trend will continue through the weekend.

Every lower degree of temperature and every higher percentage point of humidity helps. The higher the humidity and the lower the temperature, the harder it is for brush to catch fire.

As bad as the situation was this week, strong winds could have driven the blaze into heavily populated areas. Light winds will continue.

Spotty monsoonal-based thunderstorms will be of little value this weekend.

Most of the monsoonal storms will fire from Arizona on east. Lightning strikes over the Southwest U.S. in general could lead to more wildfires, especially in the storms that bring little or no rainfall.

Rain from a northern Pacific storm system will affect only the Northwest and British Columbia this weekend. Jimena has diminished over Baja California.

As a result, there is no hope for substantial rainfall over central and Southern California, and many other locations of the interior West.

While a significant number of wildfires are started by lightning, the leading cause of those fires is due to human activity.

According to Los Angeles County officials, the cause of the Station Fire is arson.

Much credit is due the courageous firefighters devoting countless hours and their lives to the dangerous situation.

As more of the fires are contained, the more air quality will improve. However, there will still be random smoky locations and intervals, mainly caused by a nighttime temperature inversion.

An inversion traps smoke in the lowest layers of the atmosphere, generally during the late-night and morning hours. Sunshine tends to break down the inversion.

Poor air quality has led to some schools being closed and the postponement of some outdoor sporting events. Officials have decided to go ahead with the UCLA-San Diego State season opener Saturday afternoon at the Rose Bowl.

Story by AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist

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