Light to Moderate smoke possible in areas of northwestern Colorado on Thursday, 8/8/24

We are glad to be reporting about the air quality impacts due to smoke in Colorado with a far lower sense of alarm than has been seen recently! However we always want to keep everyone alert to all situations that may influence public health, so we continue to monitor fires in Colorado, and those in up-wind states that may produce smoke impacts here.

The Bucktail Fire in Montrose County has remained fairly quiet, not showing significant heat or smoke production, and has allowed advisories and commentary to be unnecessary. We continue to monitor conditions in the area, although information on this fire remains sparse. We will provide updates as needed if things change in this area.

The Big Gulch fire in Moffat County (~15 miles west of Craig) increased in reported size between Wednesday and Thursday, yet this incident also has not shown significant heat or air quality impacts on Thursday. Most of the smoke seen in NW Colorado likely originated from fires that are out-of-state and is being transported into Colorado, however light concentrations of smoke emanating from the Big Gulch fire may be contributing to the yellow color of monitors shown on the fire and smoke map from airnow.gov. This indicates Moderate air quality due to fine particulates in northwestern Colorado.

Fire and smoke map showing conditions in Colorado and upwind states on Thursday afternoon.

Models also suggest that some of the smoke seen in areas of Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, and California may move into Colorado over the next couple of days, however we expect that surface impacts will remain light to moderate. There is some possibility that larger concentrations of smoke may head our way during the coming weekend, but it is a bit too early to put too much confidence in the numbers and locations that may see this influence, so we will continue to watch closely and update information on this page as expectations become more clear.