Denver's Air Quality Among the Worst in the World Right Now

This city can try to clean itself up, but it can't fence out foreign contaminants.

July 23, 2024

Thanks to wildfires, poor air quality has become an annual summer occurrence in Denver. Thomas Mitchell

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Sorry, Denver. I should have warned you.

As my plane was landing in Missoula, Montana, yesterday, you could not see the mountains around the airport. For that matter, you could barely see the airport. I should have known the lack of delay at Denver International Airport was too good to be true.

Once again, smoke from fires in Canada is wafting over the West, and Montana has sixty wildfires of its own right now. Idaho and Oregon are also ablaze.

All that smoke is headed your way, and the air quality in Denver right now is the worst in the United States and the sixteenth worst in the world; earlier today, it ranked as eighth worst. Worse than Singapore. Worse than Mumbai. Worse than Wuhan. All that hard work trying to clean up this city can't keep out those foreign contaminants.

As of 4 p.m. today, Tuesday, July 23, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Regional Air Quality Council have issued an Action Day Alert for the Front Range Urban Corridor from Douglas County north to Larimer and Weld counties, including the Denver-Boulder area, Fort Collins and Greeley.

Heavy wildfire smoke from fires in Canada, Idaho and yes, Montana, will result in elevated levels of particle pollution and ozone. This multiple pollutants Action Day Alert will remain in effect until at least 4 p.m. Wednesday, July 24.

Right about the time I land in Denver...not that I'll be able to see the airport.

Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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