Watching out-of-state wildfires

 Although there are several wildfires burning across the western U.S., the one fire that was most active yesterday and within somewhat close proximity to Colorado is the Dragon Bravo wildfire located in the northern part of Grand Canyon National Park in northern Arizona.  Satellite imagery from yesterday shows a large, well-defined smoke plume moving to the east-northeast in the direction of the Four Corners region.  

Visible satellite imagery shows a large smoke plume coming from the Dragon Bravo wildfire in northern Arizona.  Satellite imagery courtesy of the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere.

Although the vast majority of this smoke has remained harmlessly aloft, we may start seeing some surface impacts across the West Slope of Colorado over the next few days.  Transport winds at the Dragon Bravo wildfire will continue to be from the southwest, so the threat for smoke heading towards Colorado will continue.  Additionally, we continue to monitor the local wildfires in western Colorado for any increase in activity as the weather heats up and dries out for the end of the week.