Officials concerned about ozone as Loma Fire grows

SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS, Calif. (KGO) -- Most of the smoke from the Loma Fire is staying up high in the atmosphere and that's a good thing because Tuesday was a Spare the Air Day and conditions could have been much worse.

RELATED: Loma Fire threatening homes in Santa Cruz Mountains

You know temperatures remain high when the local movie theater has "some like it hot" on the marquee and feature it as the upcoming attraction. "I would say I probably shouldn't be wearing this jean jacket. It's a little too hot for that, it doesn't seem like it's cooled off much," Orinda resident Katherine Doyle said.

The Bay Area Air Quality District was monitoring the Loma Fire and the impact it may have on our air. "We don't expect that smoke to come down to ground level, it's high in the atmosphere. The main thing we're concerned about is the ozone," Bay Area Quality District spokesperson Ralph Borrmann said.

That's when the high temperatures inland, low winds and the exhaust from the cars create ozone, which can irritate your lungs.

Tuesday marked the 25th Spare the Air Day of the season.

At UC Berkeley, a few students preferred the outdoors in the shade. It wasn't a sweltering day at Cal, but students were still complaining. "Classes don't have air conditioning, little ventilation, the windows don't open that wide, so," student Oluchi Okwu said.

"Right now it's way too hot to come to class wearing anything but a t-shirt and shorts. I made the mistake of wearing black today and now I'm paying for it," student Fred Strack said.

Like many, some students are hoping for those normal average high temperatures of 70 degrees to return.