Smoke Provides Natural Sun Filter For Wyoming Photographer

If you want to take a good photo of the Sun you'll need a good filter.

Sometimes, those filters come naturally.

The smoke pouring into Wyoming from other states and Canada has created the perfect filter for these pictures of Sunspots.

The photo was taken during Sunset by Tim Mandese of Focus West Photography.

No need to spend money on expensive filters when nature is doing it for him.

This next photo is closer, giving us a better look at what's happening up there.

Nobody really wants all this smoke, but why not take advantage of it while it is here?

Tuesday's smoke will be the worst Wyoming has seen since this year's fire season began.

None of these fires are in Wyoming.

But we are certainly feeling the effects of it.

The good news is that by Thursday the wind should shift and we may see more rain to help the situation.

This week will bring in more smoke down from Canada and across from Utah.

Also, fires in Montana that picked up in intensity over the weekend made the situation much worse for northeastern Wyoming.

Temperatures will increase this week, across the region. That won't help the firefighters.

The chance of rain this week will drop, but not to zero. That won't help either.

The lack of wind will keep that smoke in our area.

The most recent smoke map below will give you a visual of where the worst of it is, as of early Monday morning.

As you might imagine the smoke will continue to drift and change direction throughout the day and the week.

You can follow this smoke map at this link.

Later this week the wind should change direction and our chance of rain should increase, just a bit. That will help.

We will have to deal with this for a while longer.

It's fire season again.

This is all typical for this time of year.

The yellow and green dots on the smoke map are the air quality index.

Little fire icons indicate where the fires are.

Pulling the map back, we can see fires to the west of Wyoming in states like Utah and Idaho.

Dry air is typical this time of year. Lighting strikes from thunderstorms that produce very little rain will cause fires in these vast wilderness areas.

This warming and dryer weather will continue as long as those high-pressure systems hang over the Western states.

The good news is that fire seasons over the past few decades have been less severe, not greater.

While some years produce more wildfires than others, the overall trend, in North America and Globally is down.

Wildfires, especially in arid parts of the United States, have always been a natural part of the environment and likely always will.

Data displayed by the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration, NOAA, show no discernable trend for increased drought in the United States in over 125 years.

The U.S. National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reports data on U.S. wildfires back as far as 1926.

According to NIFC data, the number of acres burned is far less now than it was throughout the early 20th century, 100 years ago.

Current acres burned run about 1/4th to 1/5th of the record values which occurred in the 1930s.

At that time, the peak wildfire burn was over 52 million acres.

In the decade since 2010, the peaks have been 10 million acres or less.