{"id":16961,"date":"2025-08-12T20:29:39","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T02:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/stoner-mesa-fire-smoke-reaches-new-mexico\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:03:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:03:26","slug":"stoner-mesa-fire-smoke-reaches-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/stoner-mesa-fire-smoke-reaches-new-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"Stoner Mesa Fire smoke reaches New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Stoner Mesa Fire on Aug. 5 was burning in the San Juan National Forest about 20 miles northeast of Dolores. (Courtesy U.S. Forest Service)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Smoke from the Stoner Mesa Fire, burning near Rico in Southwest Colorado, is drifting southeast along Colorado Highway 145 and reaching cities in La Plata and San Juan counties, prompting health officials to monitor air quality and advise precautions for vulnerable residents.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Forest Service reports that the Stoner Mesa Fire continues to burn in steep, rugged terrain in Dolores County, producing visible smoke for miles. While Farmington is more than 100 miles from the fire, prevailing winds are carrying smoke into northwest New Mexico. The duration and intensity of smoke impacts will depend on weather patterns over the coming days.<\/p>\n

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s AirNow<\/a> monitoring site, Farmington\u2019s current air quality at midday Tuesday was rated \u201cGood\u201d with a NowCast AQI of 43, driven by ozone.<\/p>\n

While conditions were healthy for most residents, the forecast for later in the day called for a shift to \u201cModerate\u201d air quality, which can affect unusually sensitive individuals.<\/p>\n

No forecast was available yet for Wednesday, but officials advise monitoring conditions, especially during early mornings and evenings when wildfire smoke tends to settle.<\/p>\n

Air quality categories range from \u201cGood,\u201d with no recommended actions, to \u201cHazardous,\u201d which calls for everyone to avoid outdoor activity. A \u201cModerate\u201d reading means unusually sensitive individuals should consider limiting prolonged or heavy exertion.<\/p>\n

The New Mexico Department of Health<\/a> advises limiting prolonged outdoor activity when smoke is visible, especially during early mornings and evenings when fine particulates tend to settle.<\/p>\n

It is also encouraged that residents use the \u201c5-3-1 visibility method\u201d to gauge air quality without specialized tools. If landmarks at 5 miles aren\u2019t visible, sensitive groups should limit time outdoors. if visibility is 1 mile or less, everyone should avoid outdoor exertion.<\/p>\n

At the San Juan County Fairgrounds, where the county fair is underway, President Robert Echols said the event has not yet been significantly affected by the smoke.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s smoky, but other than just being smoky and hot, it\u2019s really not impacting us,\u201d Echols said. \u201cIf air quality got so bad, it would be something the county would look to administer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Echols said no special air-quality precautions, such as distributing masks or setting up oxygen stations, are planned, but that the fair would follow county guidance if conditions worsened.<\/p>\n

Residents can check real-time conditions at airnow.gov<\/a> or app.watchduty.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colorado wildfire reaches San Juan County, prompting air quality monitoring and safety tips<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16961"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20488,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16961\/revisions\/20488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16961"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}