SPM 06-18-2020: Elevated Fire Weather Before a Cold Front Surged South

Issue Date: Thursday, June 18th, 2020
Issue Time: 10:40AM MDT

Summary:

It was another dry and windy day with critical fire weather across the majority of the state. The haze really filled in yesterday as well with the ongoing inversion trapping and accumulating the smoke from the wildfires. The East Canyon fire expanded some more – the latest on the fire can be found on Twitter under the handle @EastCanyonFire. It was too dry for any rainfall, although some sprinkles may have occurred over the western Palmer Ridge. Highs along the I-25 corridor tied daily records with many places within a few degrees of the record daily high. It got breezy as the cold front moved through, but that also helped get rid of a lot of the smoke. A 62 mph gust was measured in Cheyenne County at 6:25PM when the front surged south. The cooler temperatures felt great overnight into this morning and will help reduce fire danger today.

For precipitation estimates in your neighborhood over the last 24 to 72-hours, scroll down to the State Precipitation Map below.

Click Here For Map Overview

The map below shows radar-estimated, rainfall gage-adjusted Quantitative Precipitation Estimates (QPE) across Colorado. The map is updated daily during the operational season (May 1 – Sep 30) by 11AM. The following six layers are currently available: 24-hour, 48-hour and 72-hour total precipitation, as well as maximum 1-hour, 2-hour and 6-hour precipitation over the past 24 hour period (to estimate where flash flooding may have occurred). The 24-hour, 48-hour and 72-hour total precipitation contain bias corrections that are not disaggregated into the hourly estimates, so there will likely be some differences. The accumulation ending time is 7AM of the date shown in the bottom right corner. Also shown optionally are vulnerable fire burn areas (post 2012), which are updated throughout the season to include new, vulnerable burn areas. The home button in the top left corner resets the map to the original zoom.