Experts: No local health concerns over hazy sky

Southern California transplants have long been scapegoats for traffic and sprawl in Colorado Springs, and this week has seen another occasional import from Los Angeles: The smoky haze hanging across the region, transforming the mountains into vague distant contours.

Smoke from several major and numerous minor wildfires, including a monster blaze north of Los Angeles, has been hanging over Colorado this week, thanks to a high-pressure system to the southwest. The system’s clockwise-blowing winds are bringing the high smoke here.

Although the smoke caused health concerns in Nevada and western and northern Colorado, air quality monitoring stations in the Pikes Peak region have shown no increase in particulate matter, the main threat from wildfire smoke.

Winds from a hurricane bearing down on Mexico are expected to push the smoke out of the region today or Thursday, but for now, residents can expect hazy skies, a faint smoky smell to the air and lovely, chromatic sunsets.

A wildfire north of Los Angeles has threatened more than 12,000 homes and scorched 121,000 acres. A fire 90 miles northeast of Phoenix has burned 500 acres. Numerous other fires are burning in Utah and western Colorado, all contributing to the soupy gloom, which, combined with Tuesday’s temperatures in the high 80s, gave Colorado Springs a decidedly Los Angeles feel.

“We’ve got two or three different smoke sources, and it’s a combination of all of them getting into our area,” said Jim Hall, spokesman for the National Weather Service in Pueblo.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment issued a smoke advisory Tuesday afternoon for western and north-central Colorado, warning people with heart and lung problems, young children and the elderly to go inside if visibility hits 5 miles or less. The air in Denver and Fort Collins was “moderate,” meaning people should limit outdoor activity. The air here was rated “good.”

Visibility was five miles in Rifle on Tuesday, six miles in Denver and nine miles in Colorado Springs, Hall said. He said the smoke was hovering at 10,000 to 15,000 feet. On the summit of Pikes Peak, late-summer tourists couldn’t see beyond 30 miles, said Pikes Peak Highway manager Jack Glavan.

Rich Muzzy, environmental planning manager for the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments, the regional air quality planning organization, said there have been no unhealthy air quality readings here.

When the 2002 Hayman fire burned much closer to home, there were some particulate matter health concerns, Muzzy said.

It’s not unheard-of to have smoke from distant fires blanket the Front Range. In fact, during mopping-up of the Hayman fire, smoke from blazes in Arizona caused moderate levels of particulate matter in Colorado Springs.