Oakland Tribune: Heat wave spurs Spare the Air day as Bay Area works to curb smog

So much for June gloom.

A stalled sea breeze has spawned the region's first mini-heat wave of the season, with 90-degree weather possible in San Francisco today and 100s expected inland Thursday.

All that hot air triggered the first Spare the Air warnings of the season for today and Thursday. Regulators urged residents to carpool, postpone errands and otherwise cut down on smog-forming emissions.

The region has a lot riding on the result, according to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. If the air this summer stays clean enough around inland monitoring stations -- particularly in Livermore -- the Bay Area will meet federal air standards for the first time in a decade.

"We are so close," said William Norton, the district's chief executive officer. "We need everyone to pitch in and help reduce emissions on Spare the Air days."

The heat should be brief, promised Steve Markkanen, senior forecaster with the National Weather Service.

Livermore, which saw a high of 75 degrees Monday, should peak in the low 100s Thursday and be back at 75 early next week, according to the weather service.

In San Francisco and the coast, everything hinges on the sea breeze, Markkanen said. "In the ideal scenario, the wind quits completely for several hours in the middle of the day and then you kind of bake in the sun."

Today is the best shot at that happening, he added, and all bets of hitting 90 degrees at PacBell Park today are off if even a "breath of wind" comes off the ocean in the early afternoon. By Thursday, inland valleys should be so hot that they will draw air off the ocean, cooling the coast.

"We call it sea breeze roulette," Markkanen said. "You're playing the timing of the sea breeze."

Markkanen's ideal scenario is the air district's worst nightmare. Without a sea breeze, the sun bakes vapors and emissions from autos, trucks, refineries -- even hair spray and charcoal lighter fluid

-- into ground-level ozone, or smog.

Eventually, that pollution trickles into eastern Contra Costa and Alameda counties, triggering health alerts. Although the region's air has cleaned up considerably since the 1960s, the Bay Area remains out of compliance with federal standards by a hairs' breadth.

Federal rules consider a region in compliance based on three years of clean readings from its monitors. The Bay Area has two.

Under those rules, the Bay Area is allowed one violation at its Livermore station. A second day over the limit in Livermore kills the region's chances of meeting federal standards -- and could lead to more costly curbs on industrial emission and potential tie-ups of federal highway funds.

The region was last in compliance in 1994.

"We've had transit funding frozen twice in the past year," said air district spokeswoman Teresa Lee. "If we come into attainment, it becomes easier to plan for transit and highway funding."

To get autos off the road the Livermore Amador Valley Transportation Authority -- known as Wheels in Dublin, Pleasanton and Livermore -- will offer free rides today and Thursday, part of a test program the air district hopes to someday take region-wide.

More information about Spare the Air days can be found at www.sparetheair.org Schedules and information about Wheels is at www.lavta.org

Contact Douglas Fischer at dfischer@angnewspapers.com .