Nebraska Wildfire Smoke Blankets Douglas County, Reducing Air Quality and Visibility

When skies over the Denver metro turned noticeably hazy Thursday afternoon and winds kicked up, some residents reached for their phones and dialed 911. The culprit was smoke from wildfires in Nebraska that had moved into Colorado. Douglas County and Highlands Ranch were among the communities blanketed, with residents reporting the smell of smoke and sharply reduced visibility.

A cold front surged across Colorado on Thursday, shifting winds out of the northeast and pushing wildfire smoke from the Ashby and Minor fires burning in Nebraska into the state. The front also brought strong wind gusts that kicked up dust and added to the haze. The combination of dust and wildfire smoke created poor air quality across parts of Colorado.

South Metro Dispatch received an influx of 911 calls reporting smoke across the district. Wildfires burning in Nebraska were creating what the agency described as a "significant haze" in the metro area. The haze prompted South Metro Fire Rescue to put out a plea to residents to please only call 911 "if you see flames." South Metro Fire Rescue protects 287 square miles across Arapahoe, Douglas, and Jefferson counties, meaning the smoke advisory applied directly to communities throughout Douglas County.

The poor air conditions led to reduced visibility downtown after 3 p.m., with several City Cams showing dust or smoke in the air. Earlier in the day, state data showed air quality at moderate levels for the Denver metro. While that did not come with any public health advisories, people sensitive to smoke were advised to stay indoors and limit outside activities. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said prolonged periods of heavy smoke were not expected. Further north, the impact was more severe: air quality was unhealthy around Greeley and Fort Collins, health officials said.

The scale of the Nebraska fire season gives context to the persistent smoke. Earlier this month, the Morrill Fire and the Cottonwood Fire burned a significant amount of Nebraska grassland and ranchland before being mostly contained by firefighters. Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said those two fires combined with several others have burned approximately 800,000 acres of land, and on Thursday he announced he is signing several executive actions intended to ease the burden caused by the fires.

Although many parts of eastern Colorado saw air quality improvement over the past several hours, some areas continued to deal with lingering smoke from Nebraska wildfires, particularly along the Arkansas River Valley from Pueblo eastward through La Junta to Lamar, where an Air Quality Health Advisory was extended through 9 a.m. Saturday morning.

The cold front carried consequences beyond hazy skies. Strong wind gusts knocked out power to thousands on the Front Range, and temperatures were expected to drop by as much as 20 to 30 degrees with the front's passage. Stage 1 fire restrictions remain in effect for unincorporated areas of the county, and a Red Flag Warning was in effect as the front moved through, underscoring that despite the incoming cold, fire danger had not passed. There were no wildfires burning in the Denver metro area on Thursday afternoon, but with hundreds of thousands of acres still smoldering across the Nebraska plains, Douglas County's air quality remains tied to what the wind carries across the state line.