Smokey Skies Paint Blood Red Moon Over Wyoming

All the smoke we've had across Wyoming has led to some beautiful sunsets and sunrises.

If you're up at the right time you might even catch a yellow, orange, or perhaps a blood-red moon.

Wyoming artist and photographer Tim Mandese of Focus West Photography stepped outside late one night and saw a blood-red moon above him, due to the heavy amount of smoke from Wyoming and Idaho fires.

The scene is disturbing and beautiful.

It all depends on which way the wind is blowing.

This show below is the same scene but not zoomed in.

Most of the smoke Wyoming has been experiencing this summer was not from Wyoming, even though the state had several major fires of its own.

Idaho and California fires have contributed to the bulk of Wyoming's hazy skies as winds blowing from the west drift that smoke across the nation.

Those fires farther west are mostly forest fires in heavy pine areas, giving us a thicker, darker smoke.

Below is a current smoke map for Wyoming, 09/13/24.

This map shows layers as thick haze drifts in at different altitudes from different areas.

Winds aloft often move in different directions.

Wildfires have not been more numerous over the past few decades.

Some years do spark more fires than others. But the overall trend shows no increase.

Most of what has burned in the past few years has been in areas that used to be managed by the thinning of trees by logging companies.

The bulk of what is burning in Wyoming's Togwotee Pass is dead-standing beetle kill that would have been harvested at one time. But was left to stand.

Now those areas are overgrown and prone to fires.

Measurements of wildfires by NASA satellites show that, overall, wildfires are burning less land than in decades past.