RBC I This week’s smoky conditions are a product of the wildfires burning in California, according to meteorologist Norv Larson with the National Weather Service.
“Looking at satellite trajectories, we can follow it all the way back to California,” Larson said. “These fires are so large and burning so hot they’re generating their own weather and lofting smoke thousands of feet into the atmosphere.”
There has been a west/southwest airflow that carried the smoke in an easterly direction.
“There is some dispersion that occurs along the way,” Larson said, “so what we’re seeing speaks to the amount of smoke these fires are generating.”
There are a few fires in Utah and some smaller fires in Colorado, but they are not of the size that would produce this amount of smoke, Larson said.