Click photo to enlarge

Smoke from the wild fires settles over Walnut Creek's Contra Costa Centre and Central County on Thursday, June 26, 2008, in Pleasant Hill, Calif. The photo was shot from Dinosaur Hill in Pleasant Hill. Mount Diablo is in the background.

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Air pollution regulators are advising Bay Area residents again today to limit outdoor exercise because of the wildfire smoke that continues to blanket much of Northern California and Nevada.

Forecasters said they still can't say when the smoke will disperse, and a chance of dry lightning strikes in the hills and mountains of Northern California today and this weekend could ignite more wildfires like the ones that started last weekend.

"We are concerned about the chance of lightning," said Ralph Boorman, a spokesman for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. "The smoke is lingering, and we can't say when we will get relief."

The air district forecast air quality today as "unhealthy for people sensitive to pollution" in the East Bay and North Bay in an area stretching from Livermore, Walnut Creek and Brentwood through Benicia, Vallejo, Fairfield and through much of Napa, Marin and Sonoma counties.

Even healthy people in those areas are advised to limit prolonged exertion outdoors.

"We're asking people to exercise caution in limiting their exposure to the smoky air," Boorman said.

In the rest of the Bay Area, where air quality is forecast to be "moderate" today, people sensitive to air pollution are advised to limit outdoor exercise.

Despite forecasts of unhealthy air for Thursday, several people were exercising outdoors at Heather Farm Park in Walnut Creek. Most said the smoke bothered them.

Nick

"I didn't know it was going to be this bad," Sanchez said Thursday afternoon at the park skateboard area. "It's gotten worse over the last few days."

Leanna Stealman of Walnut Creek has asthma, but opted Thursday to take her 6-year-old son, Robert, to the skateboard park.

"I feel like I know it's not good," she said, "but at the same time, it's not good for a 6-year-old to be sitting in the house all day."

Mike Druding, 59, of Antioch said he could not resist the opportunity to play doubles tennis on a warm day.

"We're tennis rats," Druding said. "I thought about not playing, but it's more important to play."

Reach Denis Cuff at 925-943-8267 or dcuff@bayarea newsgroup.com.