Western Colorado will continue to see periods of hazy, smoky weather for the next few days. Currently, two fires are producing most of the smoke. One of those is in Colorado, the other in Arizona. The Turner Gulch fire in Mesa County is not as active as it was last week due to recently favorable weather and some great work done by fire crews. However, there are still parts of the fire that are inaccessible for firefighters and could produce smoke as the weather continues to heat up and dry out.
Meanwhile the Dragon Bravo fire on the northern rim of the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona continues be very active and produce enormous amounts of smoke. That smoke is occasionally impacting Colorado, mostly western portions of the state. The highest risk for more of this transported smoke over the next few days will be from west-central Colorado (around Grand Junction), northward into far northwestern Colorado.
All that being said, the highest risk for heavy smoke over the next 24 hours will be in Mesa County. This is especially true for locations in close vicinity to the Turner Gulch fire. Please take action to protect your health in Gateway, and also for those that reside along Highway 141 to the east of Gateway. For other locations in Mesa County, including the Grand Valley, smoke concentrations are at moderate levels Friday morning. However, smoke could increase beginning Friday afternoon depending on wildfire activity both locally and out-of-state. The air quality health advisory for wildfire smoke has been extended for Mesa County through Saturday morning. With the slight decrease in smoke concentrations in Grand Junction, taking advantage of the better air quality Friday morning might be a good idea. But do keep in mind that fine particulate levels have been elevated for several days now and do have a cumulative impact on your health, so you may still want to limit heavy exertion for the time being.
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