Another wood-burning ban will be in effect for Maricopa County from Saturday through Monday. That’s because Phoenix metro residents will experience air quality that is very unhealthy.

This will be the second weekend in a row that residents in the Phoenix metro area will need to forego wood burning. The good news is that temperatures will be much warmer than Christmas weekend.

“Last weekend, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, there was a lot of wood-burning activity going on in the Valley," said Bob Huhn, communications supervisor for Maricopa County Air Quality Department. "Since then, we’ve had a stagnant weather pattern. We haven’t seen any winds to speak of, so that means that the air wasn’t cleared out. That coupled with the possibility of fireworks, we’re expecting those high numbers.”   

Huhn added that if the predictive pollution models for Monday hold, it would be the third time in the last 12 years that Phoenix air quality has reached the “very unhealthy category.”