It may be that most of the smoke is aloft. If you look at the smoke map now it’s a lot worse than yesterday and for all of N. America not just NM.
Yesterday was clear where I am but today it’s at the highest level. Or at least the highest current level 3rd darkest on the map. I can see it distinctly between here and a mountain a 1/4 mile away but I can’t smell anything.
I have noticed over the years that it has to be very thick or from a fire fairly close (200 miles or less) to smell it. If it has traveled 700 miles from CA yet is thick enough to give me a headache and make me short of breath it still doesn’t have a smell. I think the odor component drops out with the heavier smoke particles.
Pero, quien sabe?
Yes, you are correct; The clouds finally cleared here for a while this afternoon, and high above where they have been... I’d guess around 15,000 feet or higher, I could see a significant smoke haze.
For most of the last week the weather clouds have been from ground level (7,000 ft for me) to about 11,000 feet... A bit above the mountain peak in my immediate back yard.
Well, at least this summer it has been wet enough and cool enough that my local and regional forest fire danger has been MUCH lower than normal, for which I give thanks, since I live in the forest, at the edge of a Wilderness Area. I never even had to fill the water tanks on my fire-fighting trailer.