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Multiple severe weather warnings are in effect across most of the state on Monday, and experts say they expect these warnings to continue throughout the week.
Most of eastern Colorado – from Fort Collins to Castle Rock and extending east – is under a high wind warning today, with gusts expected to reach 70 miles per hour, creating favorable conditions for a quick fire spread.
Because of the gusty winds and dry conditions, the National Weather Service in Boulder has warned people in Denver and Boulder of critically dangerous wildfires, exactly three years after the Marshall Fire.
“It’s obviously a feeling of anxiety when we get these high wind warnings and these red flag warnings, especially on the anniversary of a very significant fire day here on the front lines,” Zach Hiris, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told CPR. News.
Yet the conditions of wildfires are still the same today different and less dangerous than three years ago when the Marshall Fire broke out, Hiris said.
Winds are expected to be weaker today: 50 to 70 mph, not more than 100 mph as they were before the 2021 fire broke out in Boulder County. It is also forecast to be significantly cooler today, which will reduce the chance of another fast-moving fire like the Marshall Fire, which consumed more than 9 square miles and is considered the most destructive in the state’s history .
Hiris still recommends that residents along the Front Range have a fire evacuation plan in place “just in case something happens.”
According to an Xcel Energy spokesperson, the utility does not expect to have to preemptively turn off power in areas to reduce the chance of power lines or other equipment starting a fire.
In Western Colorado, mountains are expected to receive fresh snow, building on the buildup of a series of storms that started over Christmas, adding to “a fairly significant load on a very fragile snowpack,” said Brian Lazar, the deputy director. from the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
Lazar said the increased snowfall, combined with winds that could blow snow onto “slopes that are already close to their breaking points,” puts much of the western slope under a severe avalanche warning.
Currently the avalanche warnings cover most of the northern mountains – from the Park Range, near Steamboat, through Summit County and the Gore Range, to parts of the Western Elk Mountains.
Although avalanche warnings will be in effect until the end of the day today, Lazar said dangerous avalanche conditions will continue until the New Year’s holidays.
“Just because we are out of the warning period does not mean that conditions will automatically become safe,” Lazar said. “It will be dangerous over the holiday period so people should make very conservative terrain choices to stay safe.”
The Colorado Department of Transportation has also taken precautions to ensure roads remain clear. Spokesperson Austyn Dineen said the agency temporarily closed Berthoud Pass this morning while they proactively triggered avalanches in response to avalanche warnings across the state.
The transit authority also caused a small avalanche on the west side of the Eisenhower Johnson Tunnels, but Interstate 70 remained open to traffic. There have been no injuries or fatalities so far this season, according to data from the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.