The Summit County skies this morning are the clearest they have been in four days, but not clear enough for the Firecracker 50 mountain bike race to risk a full 50 miles tomorrow.
Smoke and haze from multiple fires burning statewide faded overnight. Local air quality monitors on Purple Air show dangerous haze is nearly slashed in half from yesterday, when quality was around 150 across the county. Today it is between 50 in Frisco and 90 in Breckenridge. (One monitor reads 7 in Frisco. Call it an outlier.)
Levels over 100 can be dangerous to people with heart and lung issues. Levels over 200 can be dangerous to anyone.
Writes the Colorado health department on its daily smoke blog, conditions should improve for most of the state this weekend.
“The Interstate 70 corridor between Grand Junction and Denver has been socked in by smoke for several days now, including this morning,” a morning post reads. It mentions winds shifting and easing on the state’s largest fires burning on the Western Slope and down south near Pueblo, saying, “It appears there could be some light at the end of that smoky tunnel in places like Glenwood Springs, Edwards, Vail, Breckenridge and Idaho Springs.”
This photo of Peak 8 in Breck from Krystal 93 listener Andy shows the difference in just 12 hours, from yesterday evening to this morning:
Breck races on
Race directors in Breckenridge are closely watching the skies and air quality before the Independence Day 10k trail run and Firecracker 50 mountain bike race, both on July 4. In a recent social media post the directors said races would be canceled if air quality broke 200. It has not reached that level yet this summer.
But race distances are being modified. No one is riding more than 25 miles at the Firecracker 50. All competitors begin at the same time, during the Breckenridge Independence Day Parade on Main Street, and team riders will combine their times for placement. Riders registered for 50 miles will ride only 25 miles.
In Leadville, home to the Leadville Race Series, race directors are sending this message to athletes gearing up for a pair of 50-milers next weekend:
Haze and even ash carried by dry, gusty winds have coated Summit from the Willow Fire near Leadville elsewhere. Krystal 93 listeners told us what they were seeing and smelling out their back door:
During the worst of the haze on Wedneaday and Thursday, July 1-2, Elevated Community Health in Frisco told people with health issues to carefully monitor the haze and head inside if they felt sick or had trouble breathing. The clinic also offered wellness checks for people suffering from smoke.