Record Heat, Smog Stifling Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO — Record-breaking hot weather is making for the smoggiest air over the San Francisco Bay Area this decade, the local air quality board said Saturday.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District asked residents to cut back on driving, barbecuing, and mowing with gas-powered machines Sunday. It was the third day in a row the agency had made such a request.
San Francisco hit 96 degrees downtown, topping the 1988 record of 93 degrees; Alameda reached 94 degrees, a full 10 degrees above the 1957 record; Monterey reached 85 degrees, up from the 1984 record of 80 degrees, and Oakland hit 87 degrees, breaking the 1957 record of 84 degrees.
The heat, high pressure and absence of ocean breezes has “trapped air pollution in the Bay Area,” air quality district spokesman Randy Wittorp said.
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