Today the sunshine has a fake yellow-gold color to it, as if we are in a science fiction movie about life on an alternate planet. Turns out there is a haze of smoke in the air from wildfires, and it's filtering through that. We can smell it, too.

No wildfires near us right now, but there is a big one down on the Arizona-New Mexico border, hundreds of miles from here.

Wildfire Today is a website that provides a map of active fires in the United States and shows where the smoke plumes extend to.



The red dots are fires, while the smoke is green (thin), yellow (moderately dense), and purple (dense). The Wallow fire in southeast Arizona is responsible for much of the smoke in the central United States.

It's just amazing to see how far the smoke travels, a lesson in wind patterns.

Down in Loveland, looking toward where I live, you can't even see the high mountains for the smoke.