As smoky skies continue to limit visibility and make it harder to breathe in Denver, a look at where it's from
An ugly combination of smoke and fog languished over the Front Range Friday, resulting in an unhealthy air quality index and sending people indoors. Events like the Rock Cup, Colorado's biggest recreational soccer tournament cancelled games.
Other events like the State High School Track and Field Meet at JeffCo Stadium went on, but the competitors have been feeling it Thursday and Friday. The smoke is expected to dissipate in Colorado by Sunday.
"It just made it hard to breathe. It almost stopped my lungs from breathing," said Sydney Cheek, a Wray High School junior. "I could not move after I ran that 400. It was bad."
"I was really concerned about them you know having to breathe this air and then try and run in it," said Diana Smith, a Smoky Hill High parent. "I was tired. I just wanted to lay down, I couldn't breathe," said her daughter Darrian after running a leg of the 4x4 relay.
There's still a lot of moisture around from recent torrential rains. That leads to fog. But now the weather pattern has shifted says the Bruno Rodriguez, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boulder.
"We finally got that push of northerly winds which helped bring that smoke down into Colorado unfortunately," Rodriguez said. The winds aloft have sent us smoke from a million acres of wildfires in Canada. "What we're seeing is some higher pressure building into the west and we find ourselves kind of on the eastern edge of that high pressure. What that does is bring down some high northerly winds on the east side of the high pressure."
Stable winds keep the smoke lower to the ground.
There has yet to be an increase in visits due to smoke for people with problems like COPD and asthma says National Jewish Health. But after a few days those visits do increase. The Rock Cup planned to resume games Saturday and Sunday as conditions hopefully would improve.
