More than 125,000 acres of Colorado is on fire as four different wildfires continue to rage in different parts of the state.
All the fires are fueled by the heat, the low humidity and the wind. Not to mention the drought that Colorado is experiencing.
Dennis Phillips, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service in Grand Junction, said the weather is going to continue to be dry and hot.
“There’s very minimal chances of rainfall, especially in the lower elevations where we need the rainfall,” he said. “We’re stuck in a summer pattern where there’s no relief in sight so it’s pretty miserable.”
Colorado didn’t get much of a monsoon this year which makes the dry conditions even worse, which makes for an unusually active wildfire season
“Normally, between mid-July and August, we would be getting on-an- off thunderstorms,” said Frank Cooper, a meteorologist from the weather service in Boulder. “That really hurt most of Colorado. It’s been a bad year.”
Pine Gulch fire north of Grand Junction is the fourth largest wildfire in state history at 81,107 acres. Lightning started the fire in July and it’s been rapidly increasing in size since.
The Grizzly Creek fire near Glenwood Springs is also growing. The fire grew by nearly 6,000 acres from Saturday to Sunday to 25,690 acres. Interstate 70 is closed in Glenwood Canyon indefinitely because of the fire. Cottonwood Pass also remains closed.
Courtesy of USFS Rocky Mountains
Personnel are primarily focused on structure protections. The fire is also too dangerous to put people near the fireline.
“We’re using as many dozers as we can to help construct a really solid fireline,” public information officer Brian Scott said.
Scott said there are 625 people working on the Grizzly Creek fire and more personnel and equipment will come over the next few days.
The Cameron Peak fire near Walden doubled its size from Saturday to Sunday to 12,124 acres, according to public information officer Kristie Saldmann. The west and southern side of the fire have been the most active. Because of the fire, Colorado Highway 14 is closed from Rustic to Gould.
Larimer County still has evacuation orders for Highway 14 north to Deadman Road and Four Corners and from Red Feather Lakes west to Cameron Pass. The area around Long Draw Reservoir is also under a mandatory evacuation order.
“Right now, our crews are looking at this fire in a big-box situation,” Saldmann said. “That means fire activity and behavior is too extreme to put firefighters near the edge of that fire.”
Instead, the priority for firefighters on the ground is structure protection which includes moving any debris away from property that could potentially be fuel for the fire.
Karla Walker/CPR
The Williams Fork fire in Grand County reached more than 6,000 acres Sunday. The fire incident command is working with the county on an evacuation plan for Fraser -- as of Sunday evening the fire was burning about 7 miles away from the town. Forest closures are in effect west of Winter Park and Fraser which includes Vasquez Creek, St. Louis Creek and Church Park
The fires are also spewing enough smoke that large swaths of the state are under an air quality health advisory. The advisories recommend staying indoors if smoke is thick in your neighborhood, especially for at-risk people like those with respiratory illness, the very young and the elderly. All four fires are mentioned in the Colorado for Public Health and Environment alerts, which went into effect at 9 a.m. Sunday and extend to 9 a.m. Monday.
The Link LonkAugust 17, 2020 at 05:12PM
https://www.cpr.org/2020/08/17/four-wildfires-engulf-more-than-125000-acres-in-a-hot-and-dry-colorado-and-theres-no-relief-in-sight/
Four Wildfires Engulf More Than 125000 Acres In A Hot And Dry Colorado. And There's No Relief In Sight. - Colorado Public Radio
https://news.google.com/search?q=dry&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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