Heavy forest fire smoke disrupts school operations and causes flight delays

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The effects of wildfire smoke in the Las Vegas Valley were felt from schoolyards to the airport Wednesday.

In addition to an air quality warning due to unhealthy air and pollutant particles, the smoke also led to changes in Clark County School District operations and delays at Harry Reid International Airport.

If there are wildfires in California, why is there so much smoke in Las Vegas? Meteorologist Justin Bruce explains.

Where does forest fire smoke come from?

Outdoor school activities cancelled

Due to the smoky air, the Clark County School District had to cancel all non-essential outdoor activities. School district principals were instructed to ensure that activities such as lunch, physical education and recess are moved indoors on Wednesday.

The cancellations also extend to extracurricular sports activities, which district officials said should be postponed.

Flights at Las Vegas Airport are delayed

A warning from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) indicated that the smoke’s impact on visibility around the airport could cause delays at Harry Reid International.

“This will result in some incoming flights being delayed an average of one hour and five minutes,” the FAA warning said.

The online flight tracking service Flight Aware had documented 478 delayed flights at Harry Reid Airport by 2:48 p.m.

Of these flights, 283 were flights to Las Vegas and 195 were flights from Las Vegas. Most of the delays – an estimated 62% – involved Southwest Airlines flights.

At the time of this report, 11 flights were canceled. Nine of these were Southwest flights.