More Wildfire Danger To Come?

COLORADO SPRINGS -Tuesday’sextremely strong winds brought the return of fire danger to the region. But just as dangerous are the dry conditions.

With most of southeast Colorado abnormally dry and even some spots with moderate drought conditions, will fire danger become even worse in the coming months?

“The high country is doing well but down here not so great,” says Good Morning Colorado Meteorologist Marty Venticinque.

This dry pattern of late shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. We are just weeks out of January–Colorado’s driest month.

“So it’s not unusual for us to be dry this time of year but we’re definitely behind on the season,” says Venticinque.”Hopefully the spring will work out a little better for us.”

But if this dry pattern continues, firefighters fear they are in for a busy fire season this summer.

“We depend on this moisture during the winter and in the spring to help keep moisture in our fuels during the summertime,” says Lt. C.J. Nauert with the Colorado Springs Fire Department.”If that doesn’t come, we’re going to be extremely dry in the summertime.”

The latest 3-month outlooks call for below-average precipitation and above-average temperatures. But with forecasts that far out subject to change, we’ll keep our fingers crossed for some spring moisture.

To see if the next 13 days could bring us some much-needed moisture, click here.