Colorado Wildfires

Weather Talk
1

Within the past day, several wildfires have started up and began spreading in Colorado.

Black Forest Fire - Colorado Springs, Colorado
This fire is the closest to where I am. So far, it appears as though a dozen or so homes have unfortunately been lost, and it has burned around 400 acres. This has all happened in less than 5 hours. It is fairly windy and gusty today and black forest is a heavily forested area. Luckily, the wind is blowing to the Northeast, which is away from where I live.

This comes almost a year after Waldo Canyon Fire - Wikipedia fire erupted in the Waldo Canyon area west of Colorado Springs. This resulted around 350 homes being destroyed and 2 people dying. Forest Fire - #14 by U8oL0]I had to evacuate as a result of that fire. Thankfully, this fire provided valuable knowledge and insight into the way that my community functions during a situation like this, and it appears as though fire operations have been more efficient so far.

Royal Gorge Fire - Canyon City, Colorado
Currently, this fire is around 300 acres large (although it is probably larger at this time) and is continually growing due to the low humidity (currently around 1-2%) as well as the hot, drought, and windy conditions present. I do not think that any structures have burned at this time.

Big Meadows Fire - Rocky Mountain National Park
This is a fairly small fire (only a couple of acres large) that is burning mostly Pine Beetle infested trees and is far away from any structures, so it is not really a big situation right now. However, high winds and dry conditions are also assisting in fueling this fire.

La Veta Fire- Huerfano County, Colorado
Another fairly small fire that isn’t currently threatening any structures.

Jack’s Valley Fire - United States Air Force Academy, Colorado
Either this morning or yesterday, there was a small fire at the US Air Force Academy, which is very near to my house, but it was only 1/2 acre large and has been completely put out since.

All of these fires have started either today or yesterday. It’s going to be a long fire season.

2

How is it in Denver I will be heading up on Friday for a funeral

3

The Denver area currently isn’t affected by any fires and will probably continue to remain fine. But after seeing how quickly these fires exploded, anything is possible.

Also, I just saw that, interestingly enough, the smoke generated from these fires is showing up as rain on weather radar:

4

Oh ok thank you, Stay safe

5

Wow, that’s a lot of fires.

6

I live in Thornton colorado, and smoke is in the air. Denver probably has smoke too. My uncle Bill and aunt Sharon are evacuees. I watch 9 news every day to see how bad it gets. I hope it doesn’t hit you guys that live near or in Colorado Springs.

7

Arrived in Denver today at 4:00 and not only can you see the smoke in the air you can smell it too

8

Yeah, back in about 2004 I guess there were some wildfires in Florida, and I was in the second grade, so my teacher wouldn’t let us go outside for recess because of the smoke.

9

Oddly enough, there is almost no sign of smoke where I live, despite being only about 8 miles away from the fire (the Black Forest Fire). In addition, I live in a valley, so I really can’t see that part of town, so I don’t have as many first-hand accounts of this fire as I did for the one last year where I had to evacuate.

As you can see in http://mapsengine.google.com/map/u/0/view?mid=zynfDqx-iJig.k3otgkqnCm-A this map, a lot of people are still under evacuation, but they have started to lift some of them.

Four hundred and nineteen homes have been lost in this fire, and two people have died. Although this fire has only had a minor effect on me (I have several friends who had to evacuate and know a few people who lost their homes), it is still a really sad thing. It hasn’t even been a year since we lost 346 homes and two other lives in the Waldo Canyon fire.

Luckily, this fire is at 30% containment so far, and the firefighters have an optimistic outlook. In addition, the Royal Gorge fire is making good progress as well, although most of the Royal Gorge park did burn down. The actual bridge, which is the highest bridge in the United States, is alright.

I just hope Colorado can catch a break soon. :slight_smile:

10

Wow, 346 homes. Fortunately only 2 people died.

11

That was during last years fire. This year 419 homes have been lost so far and 2 people have died.

12

It’s a good thing they are evacuating people…

13

Yep we are going to Rocky Mountain national park today so I bet it will be smoky also I saw on the news that the Black Forest fire is 5% contained

14

Well, the number of homes burned now is actually 473, but according to the news, the number keeps rising only because they’re making a more accurate assessment. Also, the fire is now actually at 30% containment. :smiley:

15

Better than 5%! lol

16

Very true! Now, it’s at 45% containment, and I don’t believe any additional structures have been lost today.

17

Good, hopefully it will be out soon.