When Geni Trauscht woke up this morning, the first thing she noticed was that she couldn’t see the mountains. Trauscht, who is visiting Boulder from Florida, said she was confused.
“I saw the air quality notice, and thought ‘what is it?’ I don’t think it’s smoke because I don’t smell anything, it just looks hazy to me,” she said.
But state public health officials say that the haze is due to both smoke and high ozone concentration.
Smoke from wildfires in Oregon, Washington, and Canada is blowing over most of the northern and central areas of the U.S., including most of Colorado to varying degrees. And according to meteorologists and public health officials, it’s going to stick around for a few days.
“There's no real significant strong winds in the atmosphere anywhere to blow things away to clear this out,” David Barjenbruch, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Boulder, told CPR News.
And while the whole state is being impacted by the wildfire smoke, Colorado's Front Range is getting the brunt of it.
The state’s air quality is expected to remain poor until Wednesday but it could be as late as Friday before many Front Range residents notice improvements in the air quality. Barjenbruch warns that could change quickly depending on wind patterns and the likelihood of another fire starting elsewhere in the western parts of the country.
“Right now it's going to be with us for at least the next two days,” Barjenbruch said. “Toward Friday there's some signs that we're going to see enough of a pattern change — unless another fire starts in the Western U.S. — which is certainly possible given the continued dry weather and the drought conditions that we're developing right now.”
In addition to the smoky air, the state Department of Public Health and Environment has released an ozone advisory warning for the Front Range counties — including the Denver-Boulder area, Fort Collins and Greeley.
Officials advise sensitive groups — especially those with asthma or other respiratory conditions to stay inside and avoid heavy outdoor exertion until 4 p.m. Monday. But Colorado air quality forecaster Scott Landes with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said the ozone action alert will most likely extend until Tuesday.
“We knew smoke was going to come in, but we didn't know exactly how high the concentrations were going to be with that smoke,” said Landes. “So now at 4 p.m. today, in all likelihood, we are going to upgrade that from an ozone action day alert to an action day for multiple pollutants. So we're talking about high ozone anticipated for today and tomorrow, along with elevated levels of fine particulates. So really some nasty air quality anticipated for at least the next 24 hours.”
A separate air quality health advisory for ozone has also been issued for northern Teller, western El Paso, eastern Fremont and northwestern Pueblo counties until 9 p.m. Monday.
Health officials are also asking residents to reduce emissions by biking or walking when possible, combining errands, refueling cars and trucks after dusk and mowing your lawns after 5 p.m.
