After three months with barely any rainfall, our parched vegetation unfortunately ignited at the end of July with several large wildfires taking off in the Front Range burning more than 12,000 acres combined. Unsurprisingly, drought further expanded in July and numerous jurisdictions enacting fire bans. Overall temperatures during the month were close to normal following several periods of ups and downs. Here’s a quick and colorful graphical recap of our weather during July and how it relates to climatology.
Category: Fire Weather (Page 3 of 24)
Our scorching hot, two-week-long heatwave will finally come to an end later this week, but not before we endure a few more days. A cold front is slated to arrive into the Denver area late Wednesday finally knocking us out of the 90s. This front will also come with an enhanced chance of rainfall, though monsoon moisture is still largely lacking. Despite daily chances for rain this week, our existing fires will continue to smolder and the risk of new fire ignitions remains uncomfortably high.
Between the extreme heat, thick smoke and new wildfire ignitions, this week has been quite the disaster in the Front Range! Our fuels have been primed for weeks now and our team has been vocal regarding this inevitable outcome, but things unravelled much quicker than even we expected this week with something like ten wildland fires in the Front Range just since Monday, in total burning more than 9,000 acres of forest! The weekend unfortunately won’t offer much reprieve from the heat, fire or drought, but we are tracking a potential shift next week towards wetter and cooler conditions. We provide an update on the local fires, the ongoing heatwave, the widespread smoke, and when actual raindrops may return to the forecast.
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After a cool and unsettled past several days, the week ahead turns much drier, notably hotter, and quite hazy with Canadian wildfire smoke engulfing the Front Range. Rain chances will be limited through the week as the monsoon stays largely suppressed. We will return to the 90s as early as Tuesday, perhaps nearing 100 degrees by week’s end. When is our best chance of rain, how hot will it get and when will our air quality finally improve? Let’s take a look!
An impending pattern shift is expected to bring record-breaking triple-digit temperatures to the Front Range this weekend. This latest round of extreme heat is due to a superheated airmass moving into Colorado from the Desert, an airmass which has already produced all-time record highs in other western states. We review the climatology for rare triple digit heat, discuss why Denver is often several degrees warmer than Boulder during the summer, go over the forecast for just how hot it will get this weekend and look ahead to when we may finally cool off.
The North American Monsoon is responsible for pumping subtropical moisture into the southwestern United States every summer, moisture which ultimately supplies the fuel for Colorado’s daily summertime thunderstorms — rain we desperately need in the Front Range right now following months scarce precipitation and worsening drought. However, the arrival and intensity of the summer monsoon varies substantially from year to year, especially in our area. In this long-range outlook, we discuss the developing dire drought situation, the current state of the monsoon, what’s happening with El Niño, and what to expect for weather in the coming months across Front Range Colorado.
Following right in the footsteps of May, June was another incredibly dry month across much of the Front Range, concluding as Boulder’s driest June in exactly 100 years. As a result, drought has returned to the area, including both Boulder and Denver. June also landed as one of the hottest on record for many Colorado cities. Here’s a quick and colorful graphical recap of our weather during June and how it relates to climatology.
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