Brief by Central Staff
Wildfire – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
During the first week of June, the sky was hazy over Central Colorado, which inspired a familiar question: Where’s the fire?
When the sky was hazy last summer, the answers were nearby: Hayman, Missionary Ridge, Iron Mountain, Coal Seam, etc.
But the source of this pollution was on the other side of the world. After several dry years, Russian forests began to burn. On May 19, Interfax, the Russian news agency, reported 645 forest fires with a combined area of more than 100,000 hectares — 2,471,000 acres or 3,861 square miles .
Most of the fires were in the Chita region of Siberia, and strong winds carried the fires into Mongolia.
As the fires continued, strong winds blowing from west to east also carried the smoke into Alaska, where the current then took the smoke south.
The plume arrived in our mountains on June 2, and it may stay a while. It is trapped in an air mass at about 15,000 feet, which means it will have trouble getting over 14,000-foot mountains.
Eventually the particulates will settle, or else be dispersed when wind patterns change, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s office in Boulder.