Colorado has had an ultra dry Fall/ Winter so far, combine that with high 100+ m.p.h. winds, ignition sources and dry fuels and the conditions are ripe for wildfires.

There are traffic jams in the wildfire areas due to the emergency evacuations in thick smoke and road closures as emergency vehicles are arriving on scene.

As someone who once drove into a mandatory neighborhood emergency evacuation once to help a friend and her cat get out of Colorado's Waldo Canyon fire, the stories from this fire are eerily similar, and my heart goes out to these people this holiday season. Hard to believe that this could be Colorado's new most destructive fire...and that it happened at the end of December.

[Note: multiple photos, videos, maps, Twitter Tweets at linked website articles.]

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Thousands evacuated, burn victims taken to hospitals, 600 homes burned, as wind-fueled grass fire near Boulder ...


Louisville, Superior under evacuation as fast-moving fires threaten structures


Boulder County crews fighting Middle Fork and Marshall fires, evacuations underway in Superior

Edited: with updated info.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Modern Day Savage,

This is surprising. Utah has had a very wet Fall so far. The moisture must no be getting over the mountains.

As often happens, the mountains tend to get the bulk of our snows typically and while they've gotten more than us even they've been drier than usual. Those of us in the "lowlands" of 4500'- 8000' range in elevation stay dry. I'm a couple hours from these fires and a little over 6000' and have only seen one light snow this season that didn't even dust the ground.

Do us a favor and send some of that Utah moisture this way.

I saw this developing while watching the news at noon. Multiple fire locations, in this wind (has been up to 75 mph+ here at times), in a populated area.....I hope they get this under control quickly.

It's not good now, there are homes in the line of the fires. One truck blown over closing a road, thats no help, and with gusts over 75 and one measured at 110mph it's very fast moving. One town of 10,000 evacuated and a total of 35,000 so far.

This time tomorrow it should be in the lower 30's with 3" of snow forecast, and that won't help much for recovery.

I'm about 15 minutes north of the current evacuation areas...getting a little scary.

The entire southern sky is smoke.

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
This is surprising. Utah has had a very wet Fall so far. The moisture must no be getting over the mountains.

Yeah, we're just getting storm after storm after storm. Lots of snow on the ground. And more coming tonight!

A sad day in Colorado. More than 500 homes are gone, and with the winds many more are threatened. I cannot imagine the devastating effects and fall out from this horrid event. Prayers out to all impacted. Til the wind subsides they can do little to stop it. The town of Superior is taking the brunt of it currently.

Entire populations of both Superior and Louisville under mandatory evacuation. We’ve been to Louisville on a few occasions, I’ve bought two guitars from a great guitar store, Wildwood Guitars there. They built a new customer showroom that has never opened because of COVID. Property loss is staggering, maybe this great independent store too. Hope not

Ironically, a day ago, when a single engine tanker dropped on the Oak fire just southwest of Denver, people were complaining that it was unnecessary and a publicity stunt. Little fires become big fires.

quote:

Originally posted by cudameat:
I'm about 15 minutes north of the current evacuation areas...getting a little scary.

The entire southern sky is smoke.

I wasn't sure if we had any forum members who lived in the area, but on the chance we do, decided to post this news story.

Hope you and your family stay safe, along with your home.

When you get a chance, let us know how things are going there.

Yeah, it's terrible.

quote:

Originally posted by Modern Day Savage:
I wasn't sure if we had any forum members who lived in the area.

I live about 10 miles north and a bit west of the main burning area.

Home now and can clearly see a bunch of fires burning, very sad. The high winds have died down substantially from what they were during the day allowing the Fire Fighting folks to get a chance at it. But with such a large coverage the fires will not be out soon. The damage count is 600 homes as of now with the numbers to go higher.

Several pole mounted electrical transformers blown down due to the high winds are the suspected cause.

The real heart break for these folks is that we are expected to get around six inches of snow in the next two days.

My nephew, his wife and dog just left their home for a family member in Denver. Their subdivision is next in line if not brought under control.

We are just east of the last pre-evacuation area. We had packed files, animal supplies, essentials but the wind shifted before we were ordered out. It's a pretty terrible scene just a couple of miles from here. Thankfully, no loss of life.

For locals: how is Longmont, Nw corner?

TIA

^^^^^

I'm in the Niwot area. Fires were way south of me 10+ miles. Longmont is north, so not close to what happened.

Thank you … how is the smoke

Here you go: