How to Track the Waldo Canyon Fire [UPDATED]

–NEW MAP AT TOP OF POST–

Compare this to the map at the bottom of the post. Crap.

–OLDER–

Reader Jerry left a link to Weather Underground’s Wunder Map. There are all kinds of overlays you can play with, but the one I have here is the one labeled “Fire.”

The smoke overlay comes with the fire, so to speak — which obscures most of the map and, I think, reduces its practicality. Although it certainly packs an emotional punch.

I don’t need to point out the fire to you, but if you’ll look at the smoke in the top-right corner, I’m right around the “83” temperature pin.

–MORE–

I zoomed in on the fire, took a screencap, and then messed with the exposure so you can “see” through the smoke a bit better.

The fire is mostly on the northeast ridge of the canyon, between westbound Highway 24 and Ormes Peak. 24 is dotted with small towns going west. Eastbound? Manitou Springs and then Colorado Springs. From this map, the fire appears to have crested (or nearly crested) the ridge above the Garden of the Gods park. There’s really nothing in the way of choke points or firebreaks between Garden of the Gods and the western part of town.

If you look very closely, you might notice that that ridge is a neighborhood (a rather nice one), and that the fire is right up against its western edge.

–MORE–

Thanks to tips from John Ki and JohnO, I’ve made the map much more readable. Click the link and play around with it yourself.