A western heat dome is gearing up to push the Front Range toward its hottest stretch of the season so far, with downslope winds and fire‑weather concerns building right alongside it. A weak front will try to break the heat later in the week, but largely fail as temperatures rebound into the 90s quickly by Friday and the weekend. As our spring wet season has now come to an end, storm chances remain woefully low throughout the extended leading to further drought intensification statewide.
Category: Fire Weather (Page 1 of 35)
Warmth, wind, and a few atmospheric curveballs are lining up for the Front Range this week — and it all starts with a sharp swing from severe storms to hot fire danger in less than 24 hours. From Monday’s hail‑ready instability to mid‑week blow‑dryer conditions and a potential cool‑down lurking on the weekend horizon, this week’s forecast has a little bit of everything. Read on as we detail what to watch as this surprisingly active June pattern unfolds across Colorado.
May 2026 delivered a true roller‑coaster pattern along the Front Range. Despite finishing warmer than average, the month was punctuated by two significant chilly precipitation events that funneled a remarkable amount of moisture into Boulder and Larimer Counties. The first arrived as a damaging late‑season snowstorm, wrecking leafed‑out trees across the region, while the second system — fortunately — remained all rain at lower elevations.
Together, these systems provided meaningful drought relief, though the broader hydrological picture across Colorado and the West remains deeply strained. Here’s a graphical look at how May unfolded across Boulder, Denver, and the Front Range — and how it compared to climatology.
May has finally snapped the atmosphere out of its months‑long bone dry spell, and the Front Range is making up for lost time fast. A destructive early‑May snow event, followed by a second, well‑timed upslope system just ten days later, has pushed Boulder’s May precipitation total beyond everything we managed to scrape together through fall, winter, and early spring combined. We dig into what triggered the pattern reversal, how much moisture different parts of the region have banked, what this burst of wet weather actually means for our entrenched drought, and whether the upcoming Memorial Day weekend warm‑up signals a slide back toward a more aggressive drying trend.
April 2026 wrapped up as another water‑starved month along the Front Range, trading March’s record heat for a parade of fast‑moving systems that looked promising on paper but rarely delivered meaningful moisture. Temperatures still ran warmer than average overall, punctuated by a few sharp cold fronts that briefly returned a wintry feel before the pattern snapped back to mild, windy, and dry. Fire danger stayed elevated on many days, and despite several rounds of light precipitation, Colorado’s snowpack remained historically low heading into May. Let’s take a graphical look at how April unfolded across Boulder, Denver, and the Front Range — and how it stacked up against climatology.
*Premium* This Weekend in Colorado Weather: Short-term fire concerns spike ahead of a wetter weekend
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Colorado headlines have been buzzing about a looming “Super El Niño,” but the story behind the hype is far more layered than the headlines let on. Before leaning into the dramatic graphics and sweeping claims, it’s worth unpacking where this narrative actually came from and why one overzealous model run has taken on a life of its own. More importantly, we must consider what this all really means for our state as we limp into summer with record‑low snowpack, deepening drought, and a fire season that has already been sharpening its teeth. The truth is far more nuanced than the current online discourse suggests.
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