Haze, Haze, Everywhere!

[Pskhaat]

Is it just I? Does it seem like there is `haze' now everywhere? I just drove down & back from Tucson today and it was hazy all the way from PHX. My recent trip to Tuweep held the same smoky air, clouding the view if you will. Gooseneck State Park in UT was such an un-crystal-clear day yet with no clouds that pictures of the water's gooseneck are simply unimpressive. Both the Western Slope of CO and NW NM have smoggy and dirty appearances.

I guess I just don't remember our air like this. My Uni days at UofA were always so clear (at least the air was), you could make out the surrounding mountain ranges as if they were next door. CO used to hold the sparkling vistas for 100s of miles, the Grand Canyon was picturesque with volumes of void available to the eye. No longer.

Smog? Soot? Particulates? Global Warming/Cooling? White Sox 2005?

 

[Scott Brady]

The daily rains have kept things pretty clear up north.

In just 10 years of being in AZ I have seen major changes in air quality.

 

[bigreen505]

Speaking in pure generalizations of the Colorado Front Range area, I think it has gotten a little better in the winter (which is to say it is just shy of unbearable) due to the Air Care Colorado regulations (mostly sand and gravel have to be swept up after a snow storm, the gov't can't just leave it there all winter) and the summers have become significantly worse, almost entirely due to ozone pollution. We're in a pretty tough spot right now with massive suburban expansion, but the vast majority of the poulation still commuting into a handfull of urban centers. All that combined with the basin effect means that clear days only happen when the wind blows. I've seen a number of days downtown in the winter when visibility was noticably decreased over five blocks -- i.e that fifth stop light was getting much harder to see and at 8 a.m. you could clearly look down on Denver's infamous "brown cloud" from just one or two exits up the Boulder turnpike.

Also, the ballooning population, in addition to the ozone pollution, means more buildings to radiate heat and more manicured lawns and golf courses to radiate humidity has made the summers much less enjoyable in many ways.

 

[BajaTaco]

While AZ, NM and CO have enjoyed some substantial rains this year, I think there are a fair amount of fires going on elsewhere west and north of us. This may have something to do with it, but I don't know. The Grand Canyon definitely is more hazy now, as all of the smog from California and Las Vegas gets funneled right up the canyon. I think all of AZ has dirtier air than it probably ever has due to the huge increase in population. Tucson has a dirty brown cloud all the time now, and the corridor between Phx and Tucson is closing up, and traffic on I-10 between the two is just insane these days.

 

[flywgn]

Here's an interesting link for active fires. I'm not sure what size they have to be to be called a "Large Fire".

http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/

You can see that there are several large ones burning in N Nevada and the Snake River pulls that smaze up our direction. It's hazy right now. I can barely see the Pioneer Mts 50 miles away.

Allen R