“Colorado used to talk about a fire season,” Gov. Jared Polis said in April. “It’s now a year-round phenomena.”
The wildfires have so far failed to meet those expectations. Despite a worrisome start and historic blazes in other western states, Colorado has evaded the worst predictions for the summer.
The main factor in the relatively slow fire season was well-timed monsoon rain that helped ground crews prevent small fires from spreading, experts said.
Wetter weathers, weaker winds and more wildfire prevention work meant an 'average fire year' in Colorado
Rocco Snart, the planning branch chief for the Colorado Fire Prevention and Control Division, classified 2021 as an “average fire year.”
“There’s been lots of lightning, lots of opportunities for new fires, but they’ve been held relatively small,” he said. “Weather has played a significant influence on the fire season this summer, as well.”
Fire behavior is determined by what Snart calls the “fire triangle”: weather, vegetation and topography. Along with the added moisture this summer, weaker winds and more work to reduce wildfire risks prevented blazes from growing into megafires like they did last year, he said.
Other states, such as Montana and Idaho, did not receive as much rain, said Natasha Stavros, director of the Earth Lab Analytics Hub and a fire ecologist at the University of Colorado Boulder.
“Seattle was more brown than Colorado in late July,” she said. “It’s because we had so much moisture that we were able to keep everything really green.”
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September 29, 2021 at 05:04PM
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Blame It On The Rain: Monsoon Helped Colorado Avoid Summer Megafires — Though Fire Season Isn't Over Yet - Colorado Public Radio
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