Massive smoke plume billows from LA fires -- is it headed toward San Diego?
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SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — A series of devastating fires have ravaged the Los Angeles area this week, burning thousands of structures and prompting mass evacuations.

Firefighters have meticulously worked to contain the blazes and save as many homes as possible, all while billows of smoke have drifted into the Southern California sky — so much so that a plume of grey is visible from space.

Here at home, many are wondering: will this smoke plume make its way south to San Diego County? As seen in the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite view below, captured Wednesday evening, the smoke plume appears to be drifting southwest from Los Angeles into the Pacific Ocean.

(MODIS satellite view)

“The smoke plumes will change with the wind flow but right now it’s blowing over the ocean due to the Santa Ana wind,” explained meteorologist Alex Tardy with the National Weather Service.

This comes as another round of Santa Anas is expected to bluster the region Thursday evening through Friday morning, extending a Red Flag Warning for portions of the county (mountains and valleys). This means the smoke plume from Los Angeles will likely continue its current direction — at least for the next couple of days.

Tardy also explained that San Diego County is not directly downwind of the Palisades Firethe most impactful blaze.

The next question posed by many: are the Los Angeles fire affecting air quality in the region? Tardy said the answer is “yes.” He commented, “There are some air quality issues because the pollution and the wildfire smoke is coming from the north and east towards the coast.”

These issues, however, are most predominant in Los Angeles County. On Thursday afternoon, air quality sensors monitored by the Environmental Protection Agency showed the majority of San Diego, including North County, with “good” air quality.

Tardy explained that the best source, in his opinion, for tracking real-time air quality is AirNow — an interactive map that can be found below:

At this time, the National Weather Service has not issued any air quality alerts for San Diego County.

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