Smoke making a quick return to parts of Colorado

 The Park wildfire near Chico, California is receiving plenty of attention this weekend due to it's massive size, rapid spread, and significant damage it has caused.  However, the Park wildfire is not the fire that is going to send smoke into Colorado over the next few days.  The culprits will be fires that are further south in California, along with other parts of the desert southwest.  In the below visible satellite image, note the two large smoke plumes in southern California, along with some smaller plumes in Arizona and Utah.  These are the fires that Colorado will need to monitor in the short-term.  Information on these fires can be found at the InciWeb website.

Visible satellite image courtesy of Colorado State University's CIRA satellite webpage

Sadly, it looks like smoke from this complex of fires will be transported in the direction of Colorado through at least Tuesday.  In the below image showing upper level transport winds for Sunday afternoon, notice the blue shaded area from southern California through the desert southwest and into Colorado.  The wind barbs in this area show winds that are blowing from the southwest to the northeast.  So any smoke that is produced at the wildfires today is expected to head directly towards Colorado.

600 millibar wind model courtesy of Weathernerds.org

Will the entire state be impacted?  Possibly, but there is little doubt that over the next few days the smoke will be more noticeable across the northern half of Colorado.  For this afternoon, particle pollution (PM2.5) may start to increase in Julesburg, Greeley, Ft. Collins, Denver, Boulder, Rocky Mountain National Park and Steamboat Springs.  Smoke modelling is anticipating some of the biggest increases in PM2.5 today across the northwestern corner of Colorado, so a special heads up to those in Craig, Rangely, and those who may be planning to visit Dinosaur National Monument.  To make matters even more dicey, the National Weather Service office in Grand Junction has issued Red Flag Warnings for large parts of western Colorado today, so the threat for wildfires starting in-state is also a distinct possibility.