Those around the state of Colorado likely woke up on Thursday morning and noticed the haze of smoke in the air. With the smoke dropping air quality and blocking the mountain view, the AirNow Fire and Smoke map provides a bit of insight related to where all that smoke is coming from.

As OutThere Colorado readers know, several fires are actively burning in Colorado – the Turner Gulch Fire grew about a 1,000 acres in the last 24 hours to 15,071 acres per the latest InciWeb report, being the most active fire in the state thus far this week. Meanwhile, South Rim Fire at Black Canyon of the Gunnison still sits just above 4,000 acres and the Sowbelly Fire remains around that 2,000-acre mark. Wright Draw Fire is still at about 448 acres, while Utah’s Deer Creek Fire (which crossed into Colorado in recent days) is at 15,655 acres with growth having recently slowed.

While that’s plenty of fire activity that’s impacting the Centennial State, it’s unlikely this is behind all of the smoke that’s being seen, especially considering that the last 24 hours haven’t brought the same level of activity that days prior have.

By looking at the AirNow Fire and Smoke map, it appears as if a lot of the smoke that’s drifting through Colorado right now is traveling from states farther west, with this cloud of haze drifting past Colorado and into Nebraska and Kansas, too. There’s also plenty of fire activity in Canada, though it appears as if most of this smoke is drifting west above the northern border of the United States.

That’s not to say that all of the smoke seen by Coloradans is coming from out of state – transport winds still likely pulled some of the smoke from the fires burning along the Western Slope to the Front Range. This report is moreso an attempt to address that while the smoke is looking pretty bad on Thursday, it’s not indicative of rapid fire growth in the local landscape at this time.

Firefighters have made significant headway on Colorado’s fires, even gaining about nine percent containment on the aforementioned 15,071-acre Turner Gulch blaze that’s burning about 30 miles southwest of Grand Junction.

Wanting to monitor smoke drift around the continent yourself? Find the AirNow map here.

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