good photos included in the CBS story here.
Have you noticed the hazy skies we have had around the Mile High City the last few days?
The current wind patterns are to blame.
At the moment there are over a dozen wildfires burning in the Pacific Northwest. There’s also a fire that has put out a bit of smoke in Western Colorado — the Wolf Fire.
The high pressure ridge over Colorado and a Jet Stream passing over the northern Rockies is pumping smoke right into our state from the northwest.
This along with the higher ozone levels has made for poor air quality that has created unhealthy conditions for people with breathing difficulty, according to Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
We have several fires burning, here in California, as I saw lots of brown air at the Sierra Crest this morning. Additionally, we have towering thunderheads this afternoon. CalFire had about 10 engines staged nearby, at a local motel. And at 2000 feet in the foothills, it was over 100 degrees, at 6 PM. Yep, so many people want to just let it all burn, in today’s flammable forests. What if we have another lightning bust, like in 1987? Our Ranger District, that year, had 43 lightning fires in just 3 days, including one that was 27,000 acres. What would the goal be? Ten million acres? 15 million acres? Are we going to set annual wildfire quotas? Shall we cloak the west in choking wood smoke, keeping air conditioners running 24/7? Shall we let the children and the elderly suffer through weeks and months of bad air?