Extreme fire danger threatens Four Corners this weekend

Conditions at Cortez-Montezuma County Airport were already 88 degrees, 8% humidity and southwest wind at 29 mph as the National Weather Service posted Red Flag Warnings and a Fire Weather Watch for the Four Corners/Upper Dolores River forecast area. The warning ran from noon to 10 p.m. MDT on June 28.

The highest threat later Saturday covered eastern Utah, western Colorado, northeast Arizona and northwest New Mexico. Extremely critical fire weather conditions were expected to develop across the Great Basin and Southwest through the weekend, with exceptionally dry and windy weather set to push any wildfire into rapid growth.

Utah’s Cottonwood Fire had burned more than 71,000 acres and remained 0% contained. The Iron Fire had burned more than 40,000 acres and was 38% contained, while the Cherry Fire, a merger of the Maple Peak Fire and the original Cherry Fire, had burned about 20,000 acres and was still 0% contained. Six western states were under Red Flag Warnings at the same time.

Governor Jared Polis declared Colorado’s statewide drought emergency on June 4, saying the state was facing one of the most severe droughts in recorded history. All 64 counties were at least abnormally dry, and nearly 93% of the state was in moderate to exceptional drought. The Colorado Water Conservation Board’s May 1 streamflow forecasts pointed to runoff of only 21% to 37% of median across Colorado river basins, leaving fuels and backcountry ground even drier.

Above-normal significant fire potential was forecast for the Greater Four Corners in June, and the June 27 fire report placed National Preparedness Level 3 in effect. By June 26, 35,247 fires had burned more than 2.9 million acres nationwide, with humidity as low as 3% to 10% and southwest wind gusts of 30 to 50 mph expected in parts of the affected region.