Predicting the fire’s next move

UPDATE: 7/27/2016 5:44 PM: Smoke and haze continue to blanket Central Coast communities, especially Carmel Valley. That’s where Kevin Kreyenhagen said it’s the worst he’s ever seen.

“The visibility is really bad, so I can understand why some of the helicopters are having a really hard time getting out of Carmel Valley airport,” said Kreyenhagen.

But the smoke doesn’t just bring bad visibility. There are health problems, too.

“My eyes were really bothering me, really scratchy and watery,” added Kreyenhagen.

The air quality has been bad in Carmel Valley because the smoke from the Soberanes Fire is settling into the valley and becoming trapped.

“During the daytime hours like this when the clouds retreat to the coast, that smoke starts to fall back down and mix out and falls back down to the surface,” said Roger Gass with the National Weather Service.

According to the NWS, it’s been ‘all hands on deck’. Over at Cal Fire’s base camp at Toro Park, the NWS has an Incident Meteorologist set up, who has been constantly monitoring the weather where the wildfire is burning.

“It’s just so dry up there that the fire is continuing to move,” said Ryan Wahlbrun. “Essentially 24 hours a day is what it’s burning.”

It’s now a waiting game for the smoke to clear out of the area.

“Until we actually get a decent amount of a northwest flow to help push everything out of the area, we will continue to have issues,” said Gass.

The forecast looks to bring cooler weather into the area by the weekend, which should hopefully help the firefight.

PREVIOUS STORY: Weather forecasters are playing a big role in fighting the Soberanes Fire. The National Weather Service has placed four remote weather stations around the fire and stationed a meteorologist at Cal Fire’s base camp at Toro Park.

Tonight, KION’s Steve Fundaro will show us how they are working to monitor air quality and provide important weather information to firefighters.