Hey buddy, thanks so much for joining
us here on 9 News Plus on this Monday.
I'm meteorologist Chris Bianchi.
We're now joined by Bruno Rodriguez,
a meteorologist with the National
Weather Service Office in Boulder and
Bruno joins us today to talk about the
upcoming fire weather threat for tomorrow.
For Tuesday, April the 5th and Wednesday,
April the 6th, and perhaps beyond Bruno.
Thanks so much for taking the
time to chat with us today about,
obviously something that's going
to be perhaps pretty important
here as we head over the next.
48 to 72 hours.
Yeah, absolutely happy to be here and like
you said we have a system moving through.
I was going to move through the
region tonight and into tomorrow
and even though that will bring a
little bit of snow to the mountains
is gonna be a different story.
East of the mountains like you said,
fire danger is gonna be the main
concern along with wind speeds
and the strength of those winds.
We're gonna see those winds really ramp up,
uh, this evening and tonight in the
foothills and that threat transitioning
over into the plains into tomorrow
and really persisting through the
week with dry conditions as well.
So fire danger is definitely gonna
be a concern for several days.
Well, I guess one of the takeaways
here and I know that the Weather
Service specifically mentioned this
in a tweet earlier on this morning.
Is the longevity of this this
is going to be not necessarily.
I think when we think of a lot of fire,
danger days tends to be maybe
one day thing and this could be
again you mentioned it Tuesday,
Wednesday and perhaps beyond that.
How unusual is that?
How does that kind of play into
some of the messaging around this?
Far throughout this week?
It's definitely something
we're trying to hone in on.
That makes it a little bit different
to previous events that we've seen.
Really, what we're seeing
is is the jet stream,
which is that kind of Carter of
of stronger winds aloft is going
to be fairly persistent and slow.
Moving over Colorado, and that's
going to keep those gusty winds going,
especially out over the plains.
So Tuesday and Wednesday really
look like the most critical days,
at least in terms of wind
strength at the moment,
but we're definitely seeing potential for
that threat to continue into Thursday,
Friday, even beyond.
Into the weekend,
potentially.
Well, with that in mind,
I mean, we're here in Colorado,
perhaps a bit more on guard a bit
more on alert with the Marshall
Fire and the in car fire both
within the last four months,
I know, but this is not an
exact thing or an exact science,
but perhaps how will this week's
far danger compare again with the
obvious hypothetical here that
those two events are the same?
But how?
How are there any possible
connections or comparisons I
should say between those two events
and what we're seeing this week?
Right, that's a great question.
And really the main difference here
is how prolonged this one will be.
Wins, obviously during the
Marshall Fireworks Stream,
we're not expecting 100 mile an hour wind
gusts in Boulder proper with this event.
So that is one key difference
and with the anchor fire that was
fairly localized in terms of where
we were seeing the most critical
fire weather conditions really.
For this event this week we're looking
at widespread fire concerns across the
majority of northeastern Colorado from.
The lower foothills all the way into the
eastern plains bordering Kansas and Nebraska.
So that's going to be the main concern.
Well, I guess maybe 1 bit of good news,
and specifically since the Marshall
Fire on this summer the 30th is
that we've had quite a bit of snow.
Quite a bit of precipitation
here in eastern Colorado above
average in Boulder and Denver
throughout much of the Front Range.
Now, how much has or has not all that
recent snow and moisture helped?
And perhaps making fire weather
conditions a bit better than
they were back in late December.
That's definitely a difference
compared to the Marshall Fire 2
vegetation in late December was
extremely susceptible to burning.
We saw the driest second half of the
year on record along the Front Range,
so that was a critical
factor in the Marshall Fire.
We did have a really good start to the
year precipitation wise and that's
even helped to lift a good portion
of the Front Range out of drought
status for the first time in a while.
But that being said,
the majority of the plans are
still in a drought just because
of how dry conditions were last
year and preceding years.
So we are seeing a little bit of
green up out there in the grass is
especially closer to the foothills,
but at this time the green up
isn't really sufficient to limit
fire weather concerns.
Hopefully in the next few weeks we
can get some of that and kind of get
out of peak wind season and again,
hopefully fingers crossed here that in
the next few weeks that does improve.
I guess maybe I should have started with
this a little earlier in transparency,
but what can people do now?
You know, we're saying that there's
perhaps some very critical fire weather
conditions over the next few days,
but what can we do now to prepare for that?
It's a great question.
I would kind of divide that
into two different sides.
First, what you can do to prepare,
prepare your property,
move flammable materials,
either indoors or away from your property.
Check your gutters.
Make sure they're there isn't
leaves litter blocking the gutters
that could help catch embers,
and then the other side of it is
preparing yourself for the case of
a potential evacuation and what
I would really recommend folks
to do and encourage everyone to
do is go online and sign up for
emergency alerts from your county.
The Colorado Division of Homeland
Security and Emergency Management
has a great online resource
on their webpage that's DHSCM.
Dot colorado.gov if you go to
their webpage they have a list
for every county and how you can
sign up for those alerts.
We also shared that on our social media.
Earlier today at NWS Boulder,
so that would be what I would really
encourage folks to do ahead of this event.
So sign up and make sure that your
emergency kit is ready to go.
So I think those are two key takeaways.
I Bruno any other final thoughts.
Anything we haven't covered yet about
what we can expect over the next few days
that we haven't touched on quite yet?
Really, just echo what we've said already.
Just make sure encourage folks
to use common sense out there.
Avoid using equipment that
can cause a spark. Obviously,
don't throw cigarettes out your window,
just common sense things that
can help really mitigate the
chance of accidental ignitions.
By the way worth pointing out, I think Bruno.
You'll certainly know this,
but for our audience, about 80,
if not more than 80% of wildfires are
either directly caused by humans or
have an indirect connection to humans,
AKA down power line.
So we can do a lot here in the
next few days to make sure that
the fire danger does actually.
Turn into actual wildfires, so again,
make sure we're being smart out there.
As Bruce just said.
But Bruno, more importantly,
thanks so much for taking a
few minutes of your time here
today to help us gain a better
understanding about the upcoming
fire weather threat and conditions.
Anytime thank you, Chris.
Thanks so much, Bruno.