Fire in the area? (Denver, Lakewood: home, living in, hydrant)

[beezle1]

My husband just called me from home and said there is a lot of smoke and fire smell in the area (we are on the Palmer Divide about 10 miles east of Palmer Lake). We are wondering if there is a fire in the area, or maybe just smoke drifting from the Nucla fire? Don't want to bug the fire department about it so I thought maybe someone on the forum would know something.

[treedonkey]

Originally Posted by beezle1

My husband just called me from home and said there is a lot of smoke and fire smell in the area (we are on the Palmer Divide about 10 miles east of Palmer Lake). We are wondering if there is a fire in the area, or maybe just smoke drifting from the Nucla fire? Don't want to bug the fire department about it so I thought maybe someone on the forum would know something.

I just opened my window and now smell it too... (from Palmer Lake lake)
I'll look into it...

update: my friend who is a volunteer fireman says he knows of no local burns and that it is likely wafting out hear from the LA area fires.

[beezle1]

Found this on the KRDO website....

Guest I spoke with the Tri-Lakes Fire Dept. They advised there are no fires in the area-- That it's the the high winds carrying smoke from wild fires out of state[SIZE=2][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][/SIZE]

[otowi]

It's coming from California!

[Bullitt007]

I smell it here at the Academy too. Wow...if there are no burns around here, that's a lot of smoke comin' our way from California.

[otowi]

KRDO 13 said its California and also some fires in Utah. Nuts, huh? This happened before a few years ago when they had really big fires in CA.

[Neditate]

Originally Posted by otowi

It's coming from California!

There is a fire in western Colorado near Nucla and two in Utah. We'll be getting the CA smoke in a few days.
It has been very thick and smoky smelling here all day long.
Our winds have been from the SW.

[beezle1]

Thanks everyone for the updates. I kind of freak out when we smell smoke and cannot see where its coming from, and there is nothing in the news about local fires - living in the woods, no fire hydrants, and horses and pets to evacuate!

[suzco]

All of Colorado is apparently affected. There's a good article in the Denver Post about it:

Colorado's hazy skies courtesy of California wildfires

The smoke over Colorado — which has made the mountains west of Denver invisible from downtown Denver — has come directly from the massive 85,000-acre wildfire in Southern California, according to the National Weather Service.

Although Denverites could barely see the gray outlines of the foothills immediately west of Golden and Lakewood this afternoon, the higher mountains had disappeared in a dirty white haze.

Norv Larson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction, said a high-pressure system on the Arizona-New Mexico border has caused an airflow that is carrying the smoke in an easterly direction.

"Looking at satellite trajectories, we can follow it all the way back to California," said Larson. "There is a long line of smoke. These fires are so large and burning so hot, they're generating their own weather and lofting smoke thousands of feet into the atmosphere."
. . .

[Neditate]

Beezle1 I can totally relate to your post. When I opened the windows this morning and smelled smoke I got that awful feeling in the pit of my stomach! I called our local fire station to check and make sure there were no fires in the area.
Thanks for the article Suzco!
Interesting that the Post says it is coming directly from California when our local news says it is not (at least not on 9news at 4:00). I think I'll believe a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. (update: later in the broadcast they are saying some is from the CA fires).
We get smoke haze just about every year from fires in CA but we usually can't SMELL it so that's got to be from the Nucla fire. I have a headache from the smell, it's been really bad today.