Why is Colorado getting all the smoke?

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Like it was bad today I could see thick smoke in the air and it sucks. We don't even have any fires in Colorado yet but are getting the smoke already from other places. Uhh it clogs my nose and makes it harder to breathe and gives me a headache and I hate the headache.

I knew the fire season would happen just was hoping it wouldd wait a couple more months.

Sorry to hear you are having to deal with that.

My suggestion: Hepa air cleaners in your house and N95 masks outdoors. Learned about those when we got smoked out here badly a few years ago. One day our sky stayed solid orange all day. As weather patterns get more extreme its going to happen more often.

Yeah...just go back to your covid era habit of wearing a face mask when you're out all of the time (for this different reason this time).

The prevailing winds in the US are from the west so you get the smoke from the California fires. Further east...in the midwest and South they are getting pummeled by rain and hail storms. So the ashes get washed out of the sky I suppose. But they get tornados.

Mother nature seems to like to remind us just how small we humans are ...

Smoke from Canadian fires is pouring into the US and could linger for days
Melissa Alonso
By Melissa Alonso, CNN
Updated 12:56 PM EDT, Fri May 19, 2023

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/19/americas ... index.html

and

Denver among the worst air quality in the world after smoke from Canadian wildfires moves into Front Range
colorado
By Joel Hillan
Updated on: May 19, 2023 / 6:31 PM / CBS Colorado

https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/s ... ont-range/

and

Smoke Fills North American Skies
May 15, 2023

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/image ... ican-skies

Air purifiers work great.
My daughter also uses them in Cali where there is often smoke.

Hmm, does that help even if you have crappy single pane windows? might be worth looking into as I am sure this won't be the last time.

I’d think so. They also remove bad smells so the air smells fresher.It removed the doggy smell at my house and traps mold , cigarette or weed smoke ,pollen ,dust and other nasty stuff.

BC has smoke from Alberta wildfires, too.

It started rolling into the Eastern reaches of the Fraser Valley about 4 or 5 days ago. It’s reached us at the coast now. Skies are hazy, but it’s not As Bad as it has been over the last couple years’ fire seasons. Mind you, this IS just the beginning and chances are pretty good we’re going to have some days with thin layers of ash all over our cars again.

I read a headline that the Alberta government was asking public employees to join in the wildfire fighting efforts. Possibly all/any of them, but probably more the blue collar types than office wienies.

Since Alberta is on fire first this year, it does make me wonder if more of the pro oil crowd out there are beginning to take fossil fuel burning induced climate change just a haaaaaair more seriously yet..

Today it rained, but even here on the east coast the sky has been an unnaturally milky white and the sun dimmed due to the smoke.

Well actually come to think of it we had a small like air filter thing we used when the first apartment we lived in was bothered about us smoking weed to try and reduce that, but we ended up just going outside to smoke weed to avoid further issues. But I think I have seen bigger ones in the style of one of those tower fans, so maybe we could look into one of those. Cause also my boyfriend has been struggling with allergies and now there is a bunch of smoke in the air to...like he just wants to breathe normally like he was looking forward to allergy season ending but maybe forgot a bit about horrible smoke season that came even earlier this year. But at least now walmart sells an over the counter non-presciption epinephrine inhaler for 30 bucks so that is at least kind of useful. dosn't fix the air quality but a hit or two of that can help you breath a bit better for a time. It is coming to the point where the spaceballs canned air could become appealing rather than just being seen as a comedy gimick from the 90's, though you can already buy cans of oxygen to inhale so maybe we are already there.

You are in Canada which puts you much closer to fires there, like my situation is likely not as bad as canadians that live closer to it.Like how bad it is here, its got to be twice as worse for people closer to the fires. But yeah I saw an article the other day that was saying these smokey fire seasons basically double the pollution that we breath but like the general pollution does damage over more time while the smoke can cause a lot more immdeadite health problems quicker than the general pollution smog that lives over cities.

LIke back before firee season existed there was a big fire near the mountain town I lived in, we had to go stay with my grandparent in Denver beacausee the smoke was so bad. But that was before fire season became regular, when big fires like that werent as common so moving away from the smoke till it clears up was an option we had back then. Nowdays you can't just go further away from the smoke because it is everywhere there is no escape, the place you go to escape it is full of smoke to.

Alberta is basically sea level. Where you live, Denver, is the "mile high city", where the air is thinner. But has to carry the same amount of soot. So that might make it worse. Mexico City is a mile-and-a-half high, and thats part of why its smog problem is so bad.

Well I don't live in Denver, I am north of there...but yaeh not much better in the way of air quality, like denver has had a brown cloud since I was a kid so idk denver is always polluted, but yeah with these fire seasons living further away from denver does not make much of a difference. Because apprently the smoke produces that much pollution and more, makes sense becuase I feel like my lungs hurt from having to sifft through all the pollution to get an amount of breathable air.

It really helped my sinus issues and worked so well I got a larger one for the living room.It’s one of those things I would never be without now.Right now it’s so humid that I usually have blue mold trying to grow on the wood walls but not with the air filter .You can also get them with the UV light that kills germs.

While Vancouver is a shorter distance to Calgary/Edmonton than Denver, not only does it literally depend on which way the wind is blowing.. but the Rocky Mountains play a big factor in where the smoke goes I think... the map above shows river systems - and clearly there must be a bit of a valley on the East side of the Rockies.. sooo, I bet wind could blow the smoke straight down South and smoke out Colorado worse than BC even though it's farther away.

Smoke is pretty minimal here right now, just slightly hazy in the distance. Cloudy today, so not as apparent maybe but it's definitely nowhere near as bad as it's been here when visibility was quite low - like driving through light fog.. or when some smaller towns in BC were so thick with smoke from nearby fires that it looked like it was dark out in the middle of the day.

I've hardly been outside the house for 10-20 mins over the last few days, so can't say 100% for certain but I don't think there's ash dust on cars just yet.. but maybe a tiny bit - definitely not like it was a year or so ago when small bits of ash were falling like snow and coating everything.

I haven't been to the beach for weeks, but I'm not sure of the smoke haze is even though to start turning the sunset glow bright red yet - that always happens when the smoke gets Thick.. and the really nice Sunset pic my friend posted last night still has a bright orange glow vs. Red Ring around the sun and a Red Sun travelling across the sky.


Probably gonna have to start wearing a mask/bandana/respirator or something while out riding the motorcycle during the Summers.. I remember the brand 10 tree made a hepa filter bandana for people in smokey areas to breathe through but I only saw it for sale once and never again on their site :/ One of those would have been awesome! Maybe I'll email and see if they're ever bringing it back. It wasn't cheap, but I'd buy one for myself + all the other riders in the family if they want one. (IIRC a few years ago when they were on their site they were something like $40cdn or something like that I can't recall exactly, buuuut, even if it's like 50 bucks if it's comfortable and Ideal yo wear over your face to breathe easier/healthier while riding then whatever it's worth it. Damned near every motorcyclist has some disposable income to be able to afford the hobby and expects to pay to play every season with maintenance, replacing safety gear, burning 94 octane for hundreds of kilometers each direction just to go for lunch at some kick ass pub or diner somewhere in the mountains.. or 75kms for an over priced ice cream cone at the beach like last Spring.