There’s smoke coming off the wildfires in Sequoia National Park. Where will it end up?

There are more than a half-dozen wildfires that may be impacting air quality in the San Joaquin Valley at the moment.

The closest of those, the KNP Complex fire, has burned 1,037 acres in Sequoia National Park, though an inversion layer and extreme smoke in the area have prevented further mapping of the fire, the National Park Service in its daily update Monday.

White the impacts of that smoke are being felt severely in the immediate area — pegged at level five, or very unhealthy — they aren’t yet being felt on the Valley floor, according to the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District.

The smoke is currently settled over the eastern part of Tulare County, where it will remain through Monday, according to projections from the National Weather Service. There is a slight wind coming from the northeast that should push the smoke southward into Kern County overnight.

“We’re kind of in this limbo period,” said district spokesperson Heather Heinks.

“It’s giving us some reprieve.”

For the most part, the weather service isn’t seeing much change from the typical daily patterns that affect wildfires — with weak winds from the east at night and stronger westerly winds in the afternoons. There could be some change in the wind pattern on Thursday, and the Air Pollution Control District is watching for potential impacts from the larger fires burning in Northern California.

Current information on the air quality effects from the wildfires, include a fire and smoke map and safety measures, can be found on the district’s website at Valleyair.org.

This story was originally published September 13, 2021 at 1:26 PM with the headline "There’s smoke coming off the wildfires in Sequoia National Park. Where will it end up?."