Flood and Fire Awareness Week 2022

Fire Forecasts, Watches and Warnings

Wildfires in Colorado...where do you get your information?

A number of large and small wildfires occurred across Colorado last year. These fires were due to a mixture of dry conditions, gusty, warm winds and, sometimes, careless fire prevention efforts. There were instances when residents had to be evacuated as a large wildfire moved toward their communities. Would you know what to do if this happened to you? If you live in an area that is susceptible to wildfires, how can you prepare yourself and your home?

To assist in your preparation for wildfires, the National Weather Service provides a variety of fire weather forecast products. Fire weather planning forecasts are made from each National Weather Service forecast office serving the state twice a day.

A Fire Weather Watch may be issued if, in the next 12 to 48 hours, the forecast includes gusty winds of 25 mph or greater along with relative humidities of less than 15 percent for at least three hours, or dry lightning. Fuels must also be critical.

A Red Flag Warning will be issued if these same critical fire conditions are forecast within the next 24 hours.

Both Fire Weather Watches and Red Flag Warnings are issued in coordination with land management agencies.

The fire weather spot program supports land management agencies for both prescribed burns and wildfires. A fire weather spot forecast is a detailed forecast for a prescribed burn or an individual wildfire. For national type 1 or 2 fires, the National Weather Service will send an IMET (incident meteorologist) to a fire team to provide on-site weather support and detailed fire forecasts.

If you live in the wildland-urban interface, there are a number of actions you can take to reduce your personal fire threat, including reducing vegetation near your home and putting a fire resistant roof on your house.

More information is available from your National Weather Service at:

weather.gov/fire

or from the Department of Homeland Security at:

ready.gov/wildfires.

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