We were on our way OUT of town and watched the smoke all the way to Laramie. I remmeber looking out Chris’ window and seeing that orange haze too I also thought it was a storm until I smelled what I thought was bonfire and then saw the tweets. We have a strong community here and my thoughts go out to those who lost so much. I’m grateful to be here though, in a place where people talk and pull together.

Pat, there’s no such thing as “live” satellite imagery (at least for the commercial public.) As I understand it, the satellites only pass over most locations every one to three days. I believe they can choose, to some degree, where they point the sensors, but I’ve heard that when QuickBird last passed over Boulder it was cloudy, so they didn’t collect any useful imagery. They’ve got a few birds in the air, so hopefully they’ll be able to get us some more images soon.