Although the Rocky Mountains were barely visible from Denver on Friday, health officials expect the haze of smoke from out-of-state fires to clear slightly as the weekend progresses.
The seven fires burning in western Colorado remained approximately the same size since Thursday and containment rates stayed the same. Much of the smoke clouding the horizon in the Denver metro is coming from fires in other states, .
The department in Denver as “extremely poor” Friday afternoon and expected it to improve slightly to simply “poor” on Saturday. Officials still recommend that people who are particularly sensitive to smoke reduce prolonged or heavy activity outside throughout the weekend.
The Bull Draw fire, the largest currently burning in the state, changed little over the past 24 hours due to recent rain and higher humidity levels. Fire activity may increase over the weekend as large fuels, like logs or stumps, dry out. Firefighters hope to use the lessened fire activity to build lines closer to the blaze’s perimeter. The 30,208-acre fire was 32 percent contained Friday afternoon.
A forecast tool used by the National Weather Service office in Pueblo showed the wildfire smoke swirling east and out of Colorado by Saturday evening.
Forecast animation from the experimental HRRR model shows the wildfire smoke exiting southeast CO Saturday morning. Orange and red colors depict where skies will be haziest. Loop runs from 6 AM Fri Aug 24 through 6 PM Sat Aug 25.
— NWS Pueblo (@NWSPueblo)
But people across the Front Range noted a lack of mountain silhouettes on the western horizons Friday.
Looking west from the 4th floor of the Jordan Student Success Building and was wondering where are the beautiful Rocky Mountains?!
— Sam Ng (@DocWX)
Damn, it's smoky out there today here in 😯
— John Lorenz (johnlorenz on Threads) (@StrangeShadows)
Guess what? It's back. After a brief respite yesterday, the smoke is back this morning. This was the view looking southeast from the summit of Pikes Peak about 7:45 this morning. Image courtesy .
— NWS Pueblo (@NWSPueblo)
Wildfires in Colorado and the U.S.
The map shows active wildfire locations and all 2018 fire perimeters*. The map defaults to Colorado; to see all wildfires, click “U.S.” in the view area. Click the map layers icon in the top right corner of the map to change map backgrounds and to toggle active and contained fires, and perimeters. Click a marker or perimeter for details. To view the full map and a table of all 2018 wildfires, click here.
*Data comes from two sources, and , and could contain inconsistencies. Map by Kevin Hamm and Daniel J. Schneider.