Cooler weather is expected for Colorado going into the Labor Day weekend but there’s also a forecast for increased fire danger today.
Numerous temperature records were broken during the month of August which will go down as one of the hottest on record. As a result fire danger along the Front Range is listed as “high” and “extreme” in the northwest corner of the state.
“The big component with this alert is we’re going to have some really strong winds. And so if we get an ignition with how dry things are a fire can really take off,” says Steve Sagen who is with the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center.
“A low pressure system is coming and that low pressure system is going to bring a little bit of relief. It’s going to bring a bit of moisture and cooler temperatures and higher humidity’s. Right before that storm system gets here very, very extreme high fire danger.”
Colorado’s wildfire season has been fairly mild over the summer after getting off to an early start in February. But Labor Day last year is when the state’s most destructive wildfire – the Four Mile Canyon Fire – started west of Boulder. Despite cooler temperatures this weekend hot and dry weather is expected for much of September.
