Valley air quality suffers from smoke

HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — Have you been suffering from a scratchy throat, watery eyes, or a runny nose lately? Odds are your body is reacting to the smoke in the air.

It is a common thing this time of year for the farmers in Mexico to burn their fields. Huge swaths of Mexico farmland are set ablaze to prepare for the next crop. All that fire generates tons of smoke.

The smoke is carried along by the prevailing winds which brings it to the Valley from as far away as the Yucatan Peninsula and mainland Mexico to our south.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality forecast keeps the smoke at current, unhealthy, levels through the week and into the weekend.