Wildfires cast eerie haze over Bay Area, much of California

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The Bay Area has had five straight Spare the Air days - something we haven't seen in years. All you need to do is look outside your window to see the poor air quality.

From San Francisco's Twin Peaks there was no confusing the hazy skies for fog. For starters the air was still - which is unusual for the area.

Smoke from more than a dozen fires in northern California and Oregon has been moving toward the Bay Area and staying here because there hasn't been a wind system to push it out.

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"If we don't have fresh winds to sort of ventilate that away, then we're sitting on all that smoke and that's what has happened for the last couple of days," Ralph Borrmann with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District said.

Add the recent high temperatures and air quality becomes extremely poor.

"San Francisco not being used to the heat and with all the pollutants that are coming in, we've certainly seen an increase in the number of people coming in with respiratory issues," Doctor Erick Miranda, M.D. said.

Patients also complain of headaches and coughing. With all those particles in the air, doctors recommend not exercising outdoors.

RELATED: Prepare NorCal: Disaster Preparedness Resources

But not everyone follows that advice.

"I wasn't running when it was 106 for sure. I was inside just waiting for things to cool down," San Francisco resident Richard Duke said.

But late today, things were beginning to change.

"Luckily now it's sort of dissipating and we have some fresh winds coming in," Bormann said.

With the change in the weather, there is no Spare the Air alert in effect for Tuesday.

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