The smoke chokes Boise again. Here’s where it comes from, how long it will annoy us

Air quality in Boise and the Treasure Valley deteriorated rapidly Thursday as smoke blew in overnight from Central Idaho’s Wapiti and Nellie fires — the two largest fires burning in the Boise National Forest.

Jay Breidenbach of the National Weather Service in Boise said Wednesday’s dry and windy conditions produced more smoke, which was blown south and then headed west.

“Smoke from (the Wapiti and Nellie fires) moved south out of the mountains down into the Snake River Plain, and then overnight the smoke turned back more so it was heading west down,” Breidenbach said for the Idaho Statesman. “That continued this morning as it passed through Boise. A fairly thick plume of smoke and now continuing to move west towards the western Idaho border.

There’s no good news ahead either: Breidenbach said smoke will continue to affect the Boise area for the next few days.

Michael Toole of the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality said air quality over Boise Thursday afternoon at about 2 was a reading of 144 (orange), which is unhealthy for certain groups. The DEQ issued an updated orange air quality advisory at 3:00 p.m. Thursday for Ada, Canyon and Elmore counties.

Most of the Treasure Valley has averaged moderate (yellow) air quality over the past 24 hours, but as of 3 p.m. Thursday, online DEQ live readings showed numbers as high as 174 (red) in certain monitoring points.

The lightning-caused Wapiti Fire has burned nearly 90,000 acres in Custer County and remained uncontained as of Thursday. The fire grew tenfold in more than a week – it was 9,000 acres on August 20. More than 800 employees are working to stop it.

The Nellie Fire is part of the Middle Fork Complex and has grown to 52,974 acres with only 5% containment, so both fires will continue to spew smoke.

A community meeting on the fires will be held at 6pm on Thursday at the Stanley Community Centre, with updates from the Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team. It will also be streamed live on the Wapiti Fire Information Facebook page and shared on YouTube.