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Wildfires responsible for brown skies on the Central Coast

Fresno County Sheriff's Department - Sept. 7, 2015

Wildfires burning in the Sierra Nevada are responsible for the brown skies being seen over the Central Coast on Friday.

Those dingy clouds aren't having much of an impact on our air quality at ground level, however. AeronArlin-Genet is with the San Luis Obispo County Air Quality Control District and told KCBX Friday afternoon that most of the particulate matter is farther up in the atmosphere.

"The levels that we're measuring aren't as high as the visual impact that we're seeing," said Arlin-Genet. "And, at this point, every monitoring station throughout the county is still reporting in at a 'good' air quality level."

Arlin-Genet says it's not entirely unusual for polluted Central Valley air to creep westward, but typically it's seen as high ozone levels in the Carrizo Plain area.

Several large fires are currently burning throughout the state, including the Rough Fire near Kings Canyon at more than 119,000 acres.