At noon, you could have made the call

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

If you had to make the call at noon as to whether or not you’d play a football game Saturday night in Orange County, some folks would have a tough decision to make.

And some would have had it easy.

In inland and south Orange County, noontime conditions were such that games probably should have been scrapped. Forecasts by the Air Quality Management District indicated that the Air Quality Index was good, but that particulate matter would be unhealthy. Actual readings at about 12:30 p.m. indicated that it was already unhealthy, but only for sensitive individuals.

Elsewhere, further away from the Santiago Canyon fire and toward the coast, games probably could have been played, given that the forecast for particulate matter was that it was unhealthy only for sensitive groups.

That was the advantage of waiting to make a decision about activities this weekend in Orange County rather than canceling all events through Sunday, which 15 superintendents of schools did on Thursday morning.

- Martin Henderson