Out-of-state wildfires continued to send waves of smoke across Colorado on Tuesday, triggering air quality warnings across the entire state.
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The air quality health advisory issued by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment covers all Colorado counties and will be active through at least 9 a.m. Wednesday, according to the agency.
The advisory covers such a large area because the smoke is moving into the state from several different directions, state health officials said.
Fires in Utah and Nevada were sending smoke into Colorado from the west, and smoke from fires in other upwind states was drifting into northeast Colorado, state health officials said. The wind-driven smoke increased late Monday as a cold front moved in.
The cold front dropped temperatures in Denver from a record-breaking 102-degree high on Monday to an overnight low of 57 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
But the temperature drop also brought cold, dense air that carried wildfire smoke closer to the surface, weather service meteorologist Abby Pettett said. Smoke was already moving into Colorado from the west before the cold front, but the weather shift brought more smoke from fires burning in the Pacific Northwest, she said.
Pettett said the smoke is expected to linger through Tuesday before beginning to dissipate as the winds shift.
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Surface-level smoke will start to lift Wednesday, and upper-level smoke — the kind that causes hazy skies and vibrant sunsets — may begin to decrease on Thursday, she said.
The surface-level smoke fueled by the cold front will likely clear first as hot temperatures return, Pettett said. Tuesday — with a forecast high around 80 — will be “the coolest day we see for a while,” she said.
Temperatures are expected to steadily rise throughout the week in the Denver area, returning to the 90s on Thursday and possibly the triple digits over the weekend, Pettett said.
Triple-digit heat would come close to the city’s Aug. 8 record on Saturday, and would break the city’s Aug. 9 record on Sunday, according to weather service records.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
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