Flood and Fire Awareness Week 2022

                                                      Colorado Flood and Fire Awareness Week: March 6 - 12, 2022                                                   

The National Weather Service wants everyone to be part of a Weather-Ready Nation.  With the return of spring, Colorado will see increasing chances for flooding, flash flooding as well as wildfires. Are your ready for these hazards? Now is the time to make sure you know how to stay safe if flooding or wildfires occur near where you live. To that end, the week of March 6th - 12th is Colorado Flood and Fire Awareness Week.

                                                                      Flood and Fire Awareness Topics                                                                                   

Flood and fire season is approaching...are you ready?

Colorado has more than its fair share of floods, flash floods, and wildfires.  You should be weather alert and weather-ready, knowing how to stay safe when floods and wildfires affect your area.

This week, March 6th through 12th, is Colorado Flood Safety and Wildfire Awareness Week.  Now is the time to learn about flood and wildfire risks in Colorado and to develop plans on what to do if you should be affected by either.

Did you know that flood prone areas have been identified in over 250 cities and towns in all 64 counties in Colorado? And that over 250,000 people live in floodplains in Colorado? Also, there are an estimated 65,000 homes and 15,000 commercial, industrial, and business structures in identified floodplains. There are likely many more structures located within unmapped flood hazard areas. The value of the property, structures, and contents located in the identified floodplains is estimated to be around $15 billion.

Floods and flash floods have killed over 400 people in Colorado since the turn of the century.  The historic weather pattern of September 2013 reminds us all that floods are a major concern across the Centennial state.  Floods have caused billions of dollars of damage in Colorado.  

Another spring occurrence are wildfires.  On average, 2500 wildfires occur across Colorado every year. Since 2012, 8 people have been killed when wildfires occurred in the wildland-urban interface.

To keep everyone aware of the flooding and fire risks across Colorado, the National Weather Service forecast offices that serve Colorado will issue a series of public information statements during Flood Safety and Wildfire Awareness Week. We will cover the following topics:

    Monday...Flood Watches and Warnings

    Tuesday...River Floods

    Wednesday...Flash Floods

    Thursday...Fire Forecast, Watches, and Warnings

    Friday...Wildfire Safety and Mitigation

    Saturday...Review of the Week

                                                            Flood and Fire Awareness - NOAA - National Focus                                                               

Warnings are issued by the National Weather Service for a variety of hazards. Make sure you have a way to receive warnings. If you live in a community with a siren, understand the protocol for sounding those sirens. If you own a cell phone, you will receive flood and flash flood warnings on that phone if you are in the area of the warning. NOAA All Hazards Weather Radio is another great way to monitor the weather and receive warnings. These radios can be found at most hardware or electronics stores. Safety information, watches, warnings, forecasts, current conditions, radar, and much more information is available at the following local National Weather Service websites:

www.weather.gov/boulder      NWS Boulder website
www.weather.gov/pueblo       NWS Pueblo website
www.weather.gov/goodland   NWS Goodland website
www.weather.gov/gjt              NWS Grand Junction website