DENVER — Wildfire smoke from the Pacific Northwest cast a notable blanket of haze over much of northern Colorado on Friday, including over the Denver area.
An Air Quality Alert was in place until at least 4 p.m. Friday due to a combination of wildfire smoke and ground ozone.
The smoke was fairly visible over the Denver area and along most of the Front Range on Friday morning.
While it doesn't even come close to smoky skies last summer, or even the plume of smoke that affected the region in May due to wildfires in New Mexico at the time, you could probably see and even smell some of the wildfire smoke.
Most of the smoke was coming from wildfires in Idaho and Montana. The Moose Fire near Salmon, Idaho, is the largest current wildfire in that state and likely responsible for the majority of the smoke over Colorado.
The Moose Fire had burned at least 86,000 acres and was 34% contained as of Friday morning.
There were 12 large active wildfires burning in Idaho and 11 in Montana, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
The smoke over the Front Range should gradually fizzle out by Saturday and Sunday, thanks to a shift in wind direction. Air quality should improve, along with increased shower and storm chances across the state for both Saturday and Sunday.
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