HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT Mountains around the valley turned to hazy gold behind the veil of wildfire smoke from the Santa Barbara, Calif., area. Advertisement

Haze that almost totally obscured the view of the Spring Mountains in Pahrump Monday and to a lesser extent yesterday is coming from smoke caused by a wildfire in Santa Barbara County, California, the National Weather Service reported.

Meteorologist Jerome Jacques said the wind flow had blown the smoke more toward Death Valley National Park, Beatty and Tonopah, but those winds out of the southwest changed to a more west-southwest direction Sunday night, blowing it into the Pahrump and Las Vegas areas.

It's difficult to predict when the smoke will disburse, Jacques said, figuring the conditions will persist through today. It's expected to be Sept. 7 before the fire is fully contained.

The Clark County Air Quality Board issued an ozone advisory through Wednesday. Nye County Air Quality Compliance Officer George Bernath said the conditions to create ozone don't exist in Pahrump with so little vehicle exhaust compared to Las Vegas. The smoke could affect people with very sensitive breathing conditions but not others, Bernath said, adding that the smoke looks worse than it actually is.

The smoke caused higher readings of particulate matter at the four air monitors in Pahrump Valley but not enough to trigger violations of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards, he said.

The so-called Zaca fire has torched more than 63,000 acres in the Los Padres National Forest, near Buellton, Calif., and is about 69 percent contained.

A low pressure system over the California Coast has created southwesterly winds that pushed the summer monsoon conditions out of Southern Nevada and lowered temperatures to below normal, the National Weather Service reported.