The thick, white haze over Denver and much of Colorado this afternoon was drifting smoke from large wildfires burning hundreds of miles away, the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center in Lakewood said this afternoon.
“The southwest flow of the jet stream is just sucking up that smoke and dumping it into Colorado,” said spokesman Steve Segin.
Bands of white listed over the Colorado mountains like fog today, as well, and could linger at least another day or two — or longer as the fire danger intensifies with rising temperatures in southern Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, Segin said.
The blaze contributing most of the haze to Colorado is the 88,000-acre Miller Fire on the Gila National Forest, north of Silver City, N.M.
Five fires have burned almost 100,000 acres across Arizona over the past week.
Two fires, the Purgatoire and Bear fires, which are burning in Las Animas County, have collectively burned more than 13,000 acres in rugged terrain. Both fires are about 15 percent contained, the U.S. Forest Service said.
Also, a fire crews were battling a 200-acre brush fire in Huerfano County this evening, about 20 miles east of Walsenburg.
