New Fire West Of Ft. Collins

Here in Tucson, the winds became southerly before dark and smoke returned into the metro area from fires burning in northern Sonora. Two wildfires remain out-of-control in the West this morning. The Little Bear fire near Ruidoso, New Mexico (reported on in previous post), and the High Park fire west of Ft. Collins. The High Park fire began late morning yesterday and strong winds ahead of a cold front quickly spread the fire (see graphic below). This fire is burning in an area of mixed public and private land, where there are numerous homes. It is likely that this fire was caused, somehow, by people living up there - don't think there have been thunderstorms for a number of days. Professor Bill Cotton (CSU Atmospheric Science) used to live in this area, but I think that he moved down into town a number of years ago.

With the cold front moving through during the night, strong northerly, low-level winds are now advecting the smoke southward along the Front Range. The primary plume from the fire is shown above from the Cheyenne NWS radar's base reflectivity this morning. The view below is from the Atmospheric Science web cam that looks northward from the foothills campus. Conditions today are cooler and less windy at both of these fires, so some progress may be made in controlling them.