Record-breaking heat provided ideal conditions for wildfires that scorched land in communities from El Paso County to northeast Weld County on Saturday, but forecasters say we’re in for a sharp turn to the chilly.
Temperatures soared to 84 degrees at Denver International Airport Saturday, beating a record of 76 degrees set in 1996.
The high temperatures, combined with wind and relative humidity readings between 5 percent and 15 percent, made for ideal wildfire conditions, said Frank Benton, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Boulder.
Southeast of Briggsdale in Weld County, a fire consumed nearly 2,000 acres of tinder-dry prairie and an unoccupied mobile home. A smaller fire, possibly the result of a controlled burn that got away, was quickly brought under control southwest of Galeton after burning some storage trailers and haystacks. No one was injured in either blaze, Weld County Undersheriff Margie Martinez said Saturday night.
Two small wildfires broke out in El Paso County. One of them, at Jones and Curtis roads, destroyed a building, according to an El Paso County sheriff’s dispatcher. A fire at Rolling Ridge, southeast of Colorado Springs, was only an acre in size and was extinguished.
The Crystal Fire near Buckhorn Road and Crystal Mountain Road in Larimer County, which started about 7 p.m. Friday, grew overnight from 3 to as many as 25 acres.
Larimer County sheriff’s spokesman John Schulz said the fire was 25 percent to 30 percent contained Saturday afternoon. No injuries had been reported.
A woman illegally disposing of ashes from her fireplace started a small fire around 11:15 a.m. northwest of Boulder at 300 Pine Needle Road. Mary Whippo was cited with a misdemeanor for igniting the fire, which was quickly extinguished.
A red-flag warning for the state expired Saturday evening in anticipation of a big drop in temperatures today and Monday, when a front moves in from the Gulf of Alaska, Benton said.
The chance of rain increases through the day, and snow could fall late today and into Monday morning, with temperatures dipping into the mid-20s, he said.
Two inches of snow could fall by daybreak Monday, Benton said.
“This is not unusual at all for this time of the year,” he said.
