The high winds forecasted to hit the Front Range on Thursday morning have officially arrived with around 27,000 Xcel Energy customers without power.
Major highways are already closed due to safety concerns. South of Boulder, Highway 93 is closed in both directions between Colorado 72 and Colorado 128, which leads towards Broomfield. That highway is also shut down from Colorado 93 west to McCaslin Boulevard in Superior, according to CoTrip.
On X, the Jefferson County Sheriff reported a semi on the side of Highway 93 had blown over and posted a video showing dust severely limiting visibility along the foothills highway.
Video of the semi rollover along Highway 93.#cowx pic.twitter.com/d55Avtr5HO
— Jeffco Sheriff (@jeffcosheriffco) March 12, 2026
The weather conditions have also closed major interstates. Interstate 25 is shut down between Exit 268 near Fort Collins and the Wyoming state line. Interstate 70 eastbound is also closed at Lookout Mountain near Genesee due to safety concerns. A rolled vehicle one mile west of Golden is also diverting eastbound traffic from I-70 onto US-40.
The road closures come after the Boulder Valley School District preemptively closed four mountain schools due to the high fire risk. Those schools include Nederland Elementary, Nederland Middle-Senior High, Gold Hill Elementary and Jamestown Elementary. Poudre School District in Fort Collins also closed schools for safety reasons. Colorado State University reported downed trees and damage to buildings on campus.
Dangerous road conditions are expected to continue as downslope winds move over the Rockies into the Front Range. Forestcasters expect the high winds to continue through Saturday, but the most extreme gusts could reach 90 miles per hour on Thursday. The National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesa Lab has already recorded multiple gusts near 70 miles per hour by midday Thursday
Downed power lines left more than 3,000 customers without power in South Boulder Thursday morning. But a spokesperson with Xcel Energy says the outages were resolved in less than an hour for the majority of those customers. Meanwhile, approximately 4,000 customers in Larimer County are still without electricity — it is unclear when those customers will receive power again, especially due to road closures.
Poudre Valley REA also reported outages across their coverage area, which includes Boulder, Fort Collins, Lyons and Wellington. Enhanced power safety settings can be initiated but preemptive power shutoffs were not planned.
Xcel says it doesn’t plan to use a public safety power shutoff — where electricity is proactively cut during high wildfire risk. But the utility will activate enhanced power safety settings Thursday. That system makes power lines more sensitive and can shut off electricity if something touches a line.
General Assignment reporter Molly Cruse contributed to this story.
