Wildfires burned hundreds of acres across Colorado today, as the state muddles on through a hot, dry summer.
Forecasters offer some relief from the swelter over the next few days, but the rest of the summer still hinges on seasonal monsoons delivering much-needed rain to the scorched plains and mountains in the dog days of summer, forecasters said.
Temperatures in the metro region could reach 99 on Wednesday, but chances for rain and cooler temperatures increase across the state on Thursday and Friday.
Temperatures should be in the 80s on Thursday and Friday, before sunshine and hot temperatures return this weekend, forecasters said.
Dry brush, lightning strikes and other ingredients of wildfires also are sticking around.
The Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center’s official forecast through August warns that much of Colorado “will continue to experience drier than average fuel conditions and fire weather conditions that support long periods of above-average fire potential, large fire activity and drains on local resources.”
Two fires burned Tuesday near Colorado Springs. One near Fort Carson consumed about 300 acres before crews started bringing it under control,
Fort Carson spokeswoman Brandy Gill said the fire burned grass and trees near the south part of the base, but no homes or buildings have been threatened.
Smoke from the fire briefly closed Colorado Highway 115 this afternoon.
Earlier, a fire in Ellicot in El Paso County burned 132 acres before it was put out before reaching any residences, according to county emergency dispatchers.
In Rio Blanco County, an eight-acre wildfire was burning itself out on U.S. Bureau of Land Management backcountry southwest of Meeker at about 8:30 p.m., according to BLM.
Two fires on Grand Mesa also are being allowed to burn across wildlands: the Coal Creek Fire reached more than 1,700 acres and the Clover Fire had burned more than 1,000 acres before subsiding, according to the Upper Colorado River Interagency Fire Management Unit.
Tuesday, the Coal Creek fire had only smaller interior blazes and smoldering while the Clover fire was classified as inactive by the agency.
Most of Colorado has received only a fraction of its normal spring and summer rainfall.
Colorado state officials have asked a federal judge to allow farmers and ranchers hit hard by drought to use land idled under a federal program for livestock grazing.
State Agriculture Commissioner John Stulp says his agency has filed a brief asking U.S. District Judge John Coughenour in Seattle to lift a temporary injunction that stopped the Conservation Reserve Program land from being opened nationwide for grazing.
Livestock owners in six Colorado counties can use some of the land for grazing under an emergency program, but Stulp says farmers and ranchers across the state’s eastern plains need access to additional grazing land because of the drought.
