Colorado: Wildfires erupt across state as heat record shattered
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Pastor Dale Morgan
Apr 3, 2011, 2:55:04 AM4/3/11
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Times and Climate Change
Colorado: Wildfires erupt across state as heat record shattered
By Kirk Mitchell
The Denver Post
Posted: 04/02/2011 09:32:39 AM MDT
Updated: 04/02/2011 07:25:28 PM MDT
Jeff Lassek and his son Jacob, age 9, monitored the advancing flames in Douglas Country from a safe distance last month. (THE DENVER POST | KARL GEHRING)
A helicopter makes water drops on the fire line during the Indian Gulch fire in Jefferson County last month. The unseasonably warm, dry spring is stoking wildfires across the Front Range. (Joe Amon, The Denver Post )
Six wildfires scorching Front Range land in communities from El Paso County to northeast Weld County broke out today as temperatures soared to 84 degrees at Denver International Airport, beating the record by 8 degrees, officials said.
The previous record was set in 1996, when the temperature reached 76 degrees, said Frank Benton, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Boulder.
The high temperatures combined with relative humidity readings between 5 and 15 percent and winds as high as 25 mph made for ideal wildfire conditions, Benton said.
Two small wildfires broke out in El Paso County. One of them, at Jones and Curtis roads, destroyed a building, according to an El Paso County Sheriff's dispatcher. That fire is 75 percent contained.
A second fire at Rolling Ridge southeast of Colorado Springs was only an acre and size and has been extinguished.
Two wild grass fires ignited in the afternoon at 34379 County Road 49, southwest of Galeton, and 41525 County Road 74, southeast of Briggsdale, in northeast Weld County. Information about the size and how the fires started were not immediately unavailable.
The Crystal Fire near Buckhorn Road and Crystal Mountain Road in Larimer County, which started at about 7 p.m. Friday night, grew overnight from 3 to up to 25 acres.
Larimer County sheriff's spokesman John Schulz said the fire is between 25 to 30 percent contained. No injuries have been reported.
The fire destroyed a building where an ATV and a motorcycle were stored, Schulz said.
A woman illegally disposing of ashes from her fireplace started a small fire around 11:15 a.m. northwest of Boulder at 300 Pine Needle Rd. Mary Whippo was cited with a misdemeanor for igniting the fire that was quickly extinguished.
Benton said a red flag warning is in place for the entire state.
The heat moved into Colorado from the southwest where Arizona and New Mexico were having record-breaking weather, he said.
Temperatures are expected to drop dramatically Sunday and Monday as a front moves in from the Gulf of Alaska, Benton said.
The chance of rain increases through the day and snow could fall late Sunday and into Monday morning, when temperatures could dip to the mid 20s, he said.
Up to 2 inches of snow could fall by daybreak Monday, Benton said.
"This is not unusual at all for this time of the year," he said.
Colorado: Wildfires erupt across state as heat record shattered
By Kirk Mitchell
The Denver Post
Posted: 04/02/2011 09:32:39 AM MDT
Updated: 04/02/2011 07:25:28 PM MDT
Jeff Lassek and his son Jacob, age 9, monitored the advancing flames in Douglas Country from a safe distance last month. (THE DENVER POST | KARL GEHRING)
A helicopter makes water drops on the fire line during the Indian Gulch fire in Jefferson County last month. The unseasonably warm, dry spring is stoking wildfires across the Front Range. (Joe Amon, The Denver Post )
Six wildfires scorching Front Range land in communities from El Paso County to northeast Weld County broke out today as temperatures soared to 84 degrees at Denver International Airport, beating the record by 8 degrees, officials said.
The previous record was set in 1996, when the temperature reached 76 degrees, said Frank Benton, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Boulder.
The high temperatures combined with relative humidity readings between 5 and 15 percent and winds as high as 25 mph made for ideal wildfire conditions, Benton said.
Two small wildfires broke out in El Paso County. One of them, at Jones and Curtis roads, destroyed a building, according to an El Paso County Sheriff's dispatcher. That fire is 75 percent contained.
A second fire at Rolling Ridge southeast of Colorado Springs was only an acre and size and has been extinguished.
Two wild grass fires ignited in the afternoon at 34379 County Road 49, southwest of Galeton, and 41525 County Road 74, southeast of Briggsdale, in northeast Weld County. Information about the size and how the fires started were not immediately unavailable.
The Crystal Fire near Buckhorn Road and Crystal Mountain Road in Larimer County, which started at about 7 p.m. Friday night, grew overnight from 3 to up to 25 acres.
Larimer County sheriff's spokesman John Schulz said the fire is between 25 to 30 percent contained. No injuries have been reported.
The fire destroyed a building where an ATV and a motorcycle were stored, Schulz said.
A woman illegally disposing of ashes from her fireplace started a small fire around 11:15 a.m. northwest of Boulder at 300 Pine Needle Rd. Mary Whippo was cited with a misdemeanor for igniting the fire that was quickly extinguished.
Benton said a red flag warning is in place for the entire state.
The heat moved into Colorado from the southwest where Arizona and New Mexico were having record-breaking weather, he said.
Temperatures are expected to drop dramatically Sunday and Monday as a front moves in from the Gulf of Alaska, Benton said.
The chance of rain increases through the day and snow could fall late Sunday and into Monday morning, when temperatures could dip to the mid 20s, he said.
Up to 2 inches of snow could fall by daybreak Monday, Benton said.
"This is not unusual at all for this time of the year," he said.
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