Smoke haze blankets Sydney Avoid going outside The elderly, children and people with lung and heart disease should stay indoors while smog blankets Sydney, says the Director of the NSW Environmental Health Branch. PT1M20S http://www.smh.com.au/action/externalEmbeddedPlayer?id=d-2x5ni 620 349 November 8, 2013 - 1:23PM A thick haze of smoke that once again is blanketing the Sydney basin is expected to clear by late afternoon, after a sea breeze brings relief to coastal areas first before pushing through the city. North-westerly winds on Friday morning were blowing smoke from bushfires burning in the Hawkesbury area across large swathes of Sydney's CBD, harbour, beaches and suburbs from 7am. The central coast and Illawarra areas are also experiencing heightened air pollution levels. The air quality was measured as fair to poor across Sydney between 6am and 7am on Friday. Grey zone: the Sydney skyline and Anzac Bridge, as seen from Rozelle Bay. However, between 8am and 9am on Friday, that level had reached hazardous in parts of Sydney's north and north-west. The suburb of Vineyard in Sydney's north-west reported pollution readings on Friday morning as high as 309 on the Air Quality Index at that time, while Prospect recorded a level of 244. That is compared with a typical reading of about 50 for Sydney, according to monitoring by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage. Hazy morning over Sydney Harbour. "The light west-north-westerly winds have been bringing that smoke in to the Sydney basin this morning, leading to quite smoky conditions," Weatherzone meteorologist Rob Sharpe said. We are also seeing a little bit of cloud coming in as well. That's also going to mean that the smoke conditions are going to stick around for a reasonable amount of time today. Mr Sharpe said beachside suburbs should receive relief first. Health warnings: smoke blankets the CBD. A sea breeze during the morning will start reducing the smoke around the beaches around 10am or 11am, and that will start to push into the city, bringing some clearer air around the middle of the day. Further west, it could be reasonably smoky into the early afternoon," he said. Mr Sharpe said parts of the Sydney basin had experienced hazardous air quality on 14 of the past 23 days due to bushfire smoke. The smokiest area generally had been in Sydney's north-west, which recorded 12 hazardous days, while the east had endured eight hazardous days. Most of those days had resulted in the CBD being shrouded in smoke. Saturday morning will be smoky again in parts of Sydney's north, before a gusty south-easterly change clears the air substantially from midday. The Rural Fire Service (RFS) said the Howes Swamp fire in the Hawkesbury region continued to burn west of the MacDonald River on Friday. The fire has burnt out more than 35,000 hectares. Remote area firefighting teams and water bombing aircraft on Friday were battling the blaze, which was not threatening any properties. Matthew Riley, director of Climate and Atmospheric Science at the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, said Sydney had not experienced similar and repeated levels of air pollution from a bushfire emergency since the early 2000s. He said elevated levels of particle pollution had been recorded across the state, although the most severe impacts were in Sydney. Air pollution alerts had been issued on Friday for Sydney's west, north-west and south-west, as well as the Illawarra, lower Hunter, north-west slopes and the upper Hunter. However, Mr Riley said Friday's pollution levels were not as bad as experienced on previous days during this bushfire emergency. ""Levels last weekend were four times higher, and levels at the peak of the bushfire emergency were another order of magnitude higher, about 10 times higher than we're seeing at the moment,"" he said. The RFS said children, the elderly, and people with asthma and other breathing problems were the first to feel the effects of smoke and particle pollution. The service advised sufferers to follow Asthma Australia's recommendations, including to stay indoors, close all windows and doors, block all air vents and use a filtered air-conditioner to circulate air. Outdoor physical activity should also be avoided when there is smoke around, Asthma Australia says. Mr Sharpe said Sydney, the Blue Mountains, the Hunter and Illawarra were likely to receive ""a good soaking"" of rain in the coming week, which would help to douse bushfires and suppress smoke. Possible thunderstorms and patchy rain are forecast to develop over the weekend in Sydney, but Mr Sharpe said the most intense rain would arrive for the start of the working week. ""Monday is the day which looks to be the wettest and the most widespread for the Sydney and surrounding region,"" he said. ""For the start of the working week everyone will want their umbrellas, but the firefighters will probably be celebrating the rain arriving. Then we will start to see a whole lot less smoke in the city."" Weatherzone is owned by Fairfax Media, publisher of this website.