Ben Siller, an investigator with Denver Environmental Health, uses the Nasal Ranger to determine the intensity of odor … of this reporter? (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
You know the smell. Let’s call it “earthy” — the “earthy” smell that often accompanies a in Denver.
It was reported (sniffed) Monday by The Post’s eyes (noses) on the street.
That manure smell. Winter is coming.
— Eric Gorski (@egorski)
And it smells like cows, so weird RT : Light snow flakes falling in downtown . Biting cold.
— John Frank (@ByJohnFrank)
So, what’s the deal?
According to , the odoriferous phenomenon even has a name: “Smells like Greeley.” (Our apologies to Greeley.)
“When you live in the Denver/Boulder area, when it smells like Greeley, it’s a sign of an impending snow.”
But, really. Why?
Says Frank Cooper, a meteorologist at the , the smell is coming from Greeley, or at least Weld County.
“There’s a lot of cattle up and pasture land in Weld County,” Cooper said. “When we get a good north wind and it kicks up a lot of dust and ‘other stuff,’ we get that odor — especially with the strong push we’ve got here.”
Monday’s storm boasts some strong winds from the north and northeast — from the direction of Greeley, in other words — gusting up to 35 mph at Denver International Airport, Cooper said.
, the city division responsible for air quality and , said, more specifically, the culprit is “hog farms and other food processing operations.” Per Gregg Thomas, acting director of environmental quality:
“This is a very strong cold front with strong winds and an initially shallow layer of air (that prevents significant dilution).
Air passing through Weld County (mainly near Greeley) down the Front Range carries the odors associated with hog farms and other food processing operations. Hog farm lagoons (animal sewage treatment ponds) are very odorous and smell somewhat like manure. If you were close to those facilities, it would smell different and be much more pungent.”
Good news, though: “After the front passes, the winds diminish and so too do the smells,” Thomas said.
So, that smell? It’s not just earthy — it’s hog farm lagoon-y.
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