While snow piles up in Colorado’s high country, powerful winds and critical fire weather are fueling dangerous conditions across the plains — an unusual pairing for February.
“It’s the old tale of fire and ice across Colorado,” Greg Heavener, a warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told CPR News.
West of the Continental Divide, winter has finally arrived. Forecasters are predicting more than a foot of snow in parts of the central and western mountains through Thursday morning. At the highest elevations — peaks above 13,000 feet — totals could climb to 20 to 24 inches by the time the storm moves out.
Travel over mountain passes may become difficult as fresh snow, combined with gusty winds reaching up to 50 miles per hour along ridgelines, could elevate avalanche danger in backcountry terrain.
The Colorado Avalanche Information Center says dangerous avalanche conditions are developing in parts of the Park Range, Elk Mountains and the San Juan Mountains, where new snow and strong winds are blowing and drifting snow onto the already weak snowpack — increasing the likelihood of human-triggered avalanches.
Still, the storm is a welcome boost for Colorado’s struggling snowpack.
“It’s a great start, but we are so dry and so under where we typically are for this time of the year that it’s going to take more than just this one, two, or three-day event to make up for it,” Heavener said. “We need this event every day, probably through at least early March, to make up for what we haven’t had much of this winter. It's great to finally have moisture, but this by no means is going to make up for what we've lost this winter so far in the high country.”
High winds and critical fire weather
East of the Continental Divide, the focus shifts from snowfall to wildfire danger.
High wind warnings stretch from the New Mexico border north along the I-25 corridor to the Nebraska panhandle, where sustained winds of 30 to 40 miles per hour — and gusts up to 65 — are expected across much of eastern Colorado. Combined with relative humidity in the single digits, those winds have created critical fire weather conditions more typical of March or April than mid-February.
Active grass fires were reported in both Weld and Elbert Counties on Tuesday afternoon, according to local emergency officials. Fire crews are working to contain the blazes as winds continue to push flames across dry fields.
“These winds just have an easier time spreading across the plains because of how warm the ground still is and how dry it is,” Heavener said. “And that's why it makes these fires more volatile because there's a lot of fuel grasses out there that are beyond dry. I mean, they're probably worse than kindling at this point in time.”
Much of eastern Colorado has lacked consistent snow cover since mid-November, leaving grasses dry and exposed and allowing fire to spread quickly. Officials continue to urge residents to avoid any activity that could spark flames.
