'Moderate' Air Quality Expected In North Bay This Week

NORTH BAY, CA — Air quality, which was rated as "good" in most parts of the Bay Area through most of the day Sunday, degraded somewhat Monday to "moderate status" in parts of the North Bay and the Santa Clara Valley, according to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

The measurements are based on readings for fine particulate matter pollution, such as that produced by wood stoves and thus primarily a problem in the winter.

Monday morning, the air quality readings in both Vallejo and the Napa Valley were in the yellow "moderate" zone before improving to the green "good" zone.

Tuesday is expected to produce "moderate" air quality readings throughout the Bay Area; this will persist through Friday in the Northern and Santa Clara Valley zones. The Coast and Central Bay Zone, South Central Bay and Eastern zones are expected to register "good" readings on Wednesday, and then "moderate" readings Thursday and Friday.

There is currently no "Spare The Air" alert in effect.

For detailed descriptions of Bay Area air quality reporting zones, explanation of the color-coded Air Quality Index, current readings or other air quality information, go to Sparetheair.org.

By Bay City News Service; Patch local editor Maggie Avants contributed to this report.