Thick wildfire smoke heading to Colorado, will arrive in Denver by Thursday

We are in the thick of fire season across the Western United States. No fires are currently burning across Colorado, but hundreds of fires are actively burning as seen on the Watch Duty map.

Critical fire weather will make a return tomorrow, so please avoid any potential activities that may cause a spark.

Smoke filtered in from Idaho on Monday and Tuesday, it remained light enough there was no impact to air quality but did reduce visibility a bit across the Front Range. A new wave of smoke is headed towards the Denver metro area, this time moderate to thick smoke is expected. 

This new round of smoke is a combination of smoke from long duration fires in Oregon and Idaho combined with three active fires in southern California: 

Bridge Fire – 47,094 acres as of 11:39 MDT 

Line Fire – 34,659 acres as of 10:13 MDT 

Airport Fire – 22,376 acres as of 11:14 MDT 

The first wave will arrive Wednesday night into early Thursday morning. Moderate smoke is expected across the high country and areas north of I-70. Impacts will be minimal from this first wave. 

Thick smoke will arrive Thursday afternoon and evening. This wave of smoke will be noticeable, poor air quality is expected with smoke very visible to the naked eye. You may even be able to almost taste/smell the smoke across portions of the state.