Colorado has escaped the worst of the drought and wildfire conditions gripping much of the West – but the state saw near-record temperatures and low rainfall last month, according to the National Weather Service.
Denver’s July was the ninth-hottest and eighth-driest on record, said National Weather Service forecaster Jim Kalina, who’s at the agency’s Boulder office.
Only 0.43 inches of rain fell at Denver International Airport, the service’s official measuring site, Kalina said. DIA normally sees 2.16 inches.
Rainfall, however, varied across the metropolitan area, according to the city’s Urban Drainage and Flood Control District rain-gauge network.
Some individual gauges measured July rain at 1.3 to 1.8 inches. A gauge at the Denver Tech Center recorded 3 inches of rain.
Conditions have been far worse in Idaho and Montana, where July’s temperatures were the hottest on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported this week.
“Below-average rainfall, combined with scorching temperatures, helped put 46 percent of the contiguous U.S. in some stage of drought by the end of July,” the agency wrote.
While tens of thousands of acres of Montana and Idaho were aflame Thursday, Colorado’s wildfire season has been surprisingly slow, said Larry Helmerick, fire information officer for the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center.
“We’ve been very fortunate up to now,” he said.
Wildfires have burned about 10,000 acres of Colorado this year, he said. By August last year, almost 90,000 acres had burned.
“There’s still concern. We can’t turn our backs,” Helmerick said. “We have much more fine fuel than normal. The grasses and weeds are really high, and if that dries out, it’s going to fuel more fires.”
Teams of firefighters are continually stamping out small fires across the state, he said, especially on the Western Slope.
But Colorado has been able to send some fire crews to harder-hit Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, Helmerick said.
The average July temperature in Boise, Idaho, was 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, according to NOAA – more than 9 degrees above average. July was the warmest ever in Idaho, NOAA reported.
In that state, wildfires have cut through 1.3 million acres this year, Helmerick said. Last year, 972,000 acres there burned.
“Idaho and Montana are adding between 30,000 and 70,000 acres (on fire) every day,” Helmerick said. “It’s critical out there.”
Afternoon storms have helped dampen wildfire risk along the Front Range, he said.
With 1.37 inches of rain falling at DIA in the past two weeks, the first half of August was the 16th-wettest on record, the National Weather Service’s Kalina said.
And, yes, it was hot – the seventh- warmest on record, Kalina said.
Staff writer Katy Human can be reached at 303-954-1910 or khuman@denverpost.com.
