Utah is “in the clear” when it comes to smoke from multiple Los Angeles County wildfires, according to the National Weather Service’s 48-hour forecasts.
Northeast winds will likely carry California’s heavy smoke “offshore,” over the Pacific Ocean, said David Church, a science operations officer with Salt Lake City’s NWS. The northerly flow, Church projects, will continue until the weekend.
“Anything that would be coming in to impact us would be really coming from the north or from the northwest,” Church said. “So that should keep any smoke impacts away from Utah.”
Smoke impacts for Utah typically happen in the summer, according to Church, as west and northwest winds bring fire haze from northern California, Oregon or Washington. At this time of year, Church said, it is “rare” for wildfires to happen in those parts of the country.
As of Wednesday morning, three active blazes had scorched more than 26,000 acres across Los Angeles County, according to the Los Angeles Times. Five people have died, the Times reported, and thousands of homes, businesses and buildings have been burned.
California’s storm system, according to Church, is the same as Utah’s that brought “gusty winds” of up to 60 miles per hour to areas in Davis and Weber counties. But the combination of high, ”hurricane level” winds and low humidity have fueled L.A.’s “dangerous” fire conditions, Church said.
Utah’s Department of Public Safety and the Department of Natural Resource have “received requests for assistance” from California, according to DPS’s communications spokesperson Hillary Koellner. As of Wednesday afternoon, the two agencies are “working on what resources [they] can provide.”
Utah, following confirmation from California agencies, will send around 60 firefighters from across 21 Utah fire departments, according to Angela Lang, DPS’s response coordination bureau chief.
The deployment will be Utah’s fourth to California in the last six months.
“It’s definitely an increase from years past,” Lang said. “Until 2024, we’ve actually had two years where we didn’t have any [requests for assistance].”
