This wildfire was named the Campbell Fire and occurred on BLM land, 14 miles west of the town of Nucla in Montrose County. The fire primarily burned ponderosa and pinyon pine, juniper, and oak brush.
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Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS GJT wrote it up.
This wildfire was named the Campbell Fire and occurred on BLM land, 14 miles west of the town of Nucla in Montrose County. The fire primarily burned ponderosa and pinyon pine, juniper, and oak brush. This wildfire continued into the month of August. See the August 2004 Storm Data publication for a continuation of the report on this fire.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Grand Junction, CO wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 31, 2:16 AM MST, 9 hours 44 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND JUNCTION CO 316 AM MDT SAT JUL 31 2004 .SHORT TERM (TODAY THROUGH SUNDAY)... AN AREA OF ALTOCU WAS MOVING SLOWLY EAST-NORTHEAST ACROSS EAST- CENTRAL UTAH AND WEST-CENTRAL COLORADO EARLY THIS MORNING. CLOUDS CORRESPOND WELL WITH VORT CENTER ACCORDING TO RUC ANALYSIS. VORT ALSO PICKED UP IN ETA AND EXPECT SOME OF THESE CLOUDS TO LINGER PAST SUNRISE. TODAY-THIS EVENING: AS MENTIONED IN SEVERAL PREVIOUS DISCUSSIONS... TODAY WILL BE THE DRIEST DAY PRIOR TO A RETURN TO MONSOONAL FLOW. SATELLITE IMAGERY COMBINED WITH RUC ANALYSIS APPEARED TO SUPPORT THIS IDEA AS WV IMAGERY SHOWING DRIER MID-LEVEL AIR MOVING INTO THE FOUR CORNERS. RUC 5H ANALYSIS SHOWED FORECAST AREA BENEATH RIDGE WITH TROF TO THE WEST OVER THE EASTERN PACIFIC. PACIFIC MOISTURE WAS MOVING NORTHEAST ACROSS NEVADA AND NORTHERN UTAH THEN SHEARING TO THE NORTHWEST AND SOUTHEAST IN DEFORMATION AREA BETWEEN THE PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED SYNOPTIC FEATURES. THIS MOISTURE TRAJECTORY SHOULD CONTINUE TO AFFECT THE EASTERN UINTA MOUNTAINS AND THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE DURING THE AFTERNOON. THEREFORE...HELD ONTO IDEA OF ISOLATED TSTMS ALONG THESE AREAS IN RESPONSE TO DIURNAL WARMING. WEAK PVA COMBINED WITH SOME JET DIVERGENCE OVER THE NORTHERN ZONES SHOULD PROVIDE ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR ISOLATED CONVECTION THIS AFTERNOON. 7H TEMPS RISE ANOTHER DEGREE OR TWO...SO EXPECT TEMPS ON THE ORDER OF 1 TO 3 DEGREES WARMER THAN YESTERDAYS. BALANCED GOING FORECAST WITH MET MOS GUIDANCE IN PREPARING HIGH TEMP FORECAST. LATE TONIGHT: INSUFFICIENT DYNAMICS TO OVERCOME DIURNAL COOLING...SO WILL CONTINUE DRY FORECAST LATE TONIGHT WITH DECREASING CLOUDS. LOWS SHOULD CONTINUE TO BE NEAR NORMAL FOR THIS TIME OF YEAR. SUNDAY: HIGH CENTER MOVES INTO NORTH-CENTRAL NM DURING THE DAY. FLOW SHIFTS TO THE SOUTHWEST AS A RESULT...THOUGH SUB-TROPICAL MOISTURE FROM THE MEXICAN PLATEAU WILL MOVE THROUGH WESTERN UTAH ACCORDING TO THE ETA. THEREFORE...FORECAST AREA WILL SEE ANOTHER ROUND OF ISOLATED DRY THUNDERSTORMS...EXCEPT ACROSS THE EASTERN UINTA MOUNTAINS. THIS AREA WILL BE ON THE EDGE OF THE SUB-TROPICAL MOISTURE RETURN. ADDITIONALLY...SHORTWAVE MOVING NORTHWARD ACROSS CENTRAL UTAH LIKELY TO ENHANCE CONVECTION OVER THIS REGION. THEREFORE...WILL CONTINUE WITH SCATTERED POPS ACROSS THE EASTERN UINTA MTNS SUNDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING. TEMPS SHOULD REMAIN WARM...THOUGH TREND TOWARD INCREASED CLOUDS SHOULD BE SUFFICIENT TO REIN IN TEMPS A DEGREE OR TWO. .LONG TERM (SUNDAY NIGHT THROUGH SATURDAY)...THE ETA SEEMS TO BE FOLLOWING THE GFS SOLUTION OF A RETURN OF SUBTROPICAL MOISTURE FOR THE NEW WEEK. THE UPPER HIGH REMAINS ANCHORED TO OUR SOUTH OR SOUTHEAST THRU THE PERIOD. STILL SOME UNCERTAINTY OF THE DRYING TREND PROGGED FOR LATE IN THE WEEK WITH A SLOWER TIMING TO THE WEST-COAST TROF PROGRESSION. SUNDAY NIGHT-MONDAY...A WEAK LINEAR VORT MAX OVER CENTRAL TEXAS TONIGHT IS PROGGED TO ROTATE AROUND THE NEW MEXICO HIGH AND INTO THE FOUR CORNERS BY SUNDAY NIGHT. THIS WILL BRING DEEPENING MOISTURE AND SOME FORCING. HAVE INCREASED POPS FOR LATE MONDAY ESPECIALLY ACROSS EASTERN UTAH. MOISTURE IS PROGGED TO DIMINISH BY MIDWEEK...BUT THIS SEEMS UNLIKELY WITHOUT SOME FLATTENING OF THE RIDGE. WILL KEEP LOW-GRADE MONSOON POPS THROUGH DAY 7. RAMEY && .GJT WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... .CO...NONE. .UT...NONE. NL/JOE
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND JUNCTION CO 545 AM MDT SAT JUL 31 2004 COZ001>014-017>023-UTZ022>025-027>029-011300- ANIMAS RIVER BASIN-ARCHES/GRAND FLAT-CANYONLANDS/NATURAL BRIDGES- CENTRAL COLORADO RIVER BASIN- CENTRAL GUNNISON AND UNCOMPAHGRE RIVER BASIN- CENTRAL YAMPA RIVER BASIN-DEBEQUE TO SILT CORRIDOR- EASTERN UINTA BASIN-EASTERN UINTA MOUNTAINS- ELKHEAD AND PARK MOUNTAINS-FLAT TOPS- FOUR CORNERS/UPPER DOLORES RIVER- GORE AND ELK MOUNTAINS/CENTRAL MOUNTAINS-GRAND AND BATTLEMENT MESAS- GRAND VALLEY-LA SAL AND ABAJO MOUNTAINS-LOWER YAMPA RIVER BASIN- NORTHWEST SAN JUAN MOUNTAINS-PARADOX VALLEY/LOWER DOLORES RIVER- ROAN AND TAVAPUTS PLATEAUS-SAN JUAN RIVER BASIN-SOUTHEAST UTAH- SOUTHWEST SAN JUAN MOUNTAINS-TAVAPUTS PLATEAU- UNCOMPAHGRE PLATEAU AND DALLAS DIVIDE-UPPER GUNNISON RIVER VALLEY- UPPER YAMPA RIVER BASIN-WEST ELK AND SAWATCH MOUNTAINS- 545 AM MDT SAT JUL 31 2004 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR WESTERN COLORADO AND EASTERN UTAH. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT... ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS WILL OCCUR AGAIN THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING... MAINLY ALONG THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE. THESE STORMS WILL PRODUCE LITTLE RAIN WITH GUSTY WINDS TO 45 MPH AND SMALL HAIL. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH SATURDAY... THUNDERSTORMS WILL INCREASE IN AREAL COVERAGE BEGINNING SUNDAY AND WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE REMAINDER OF THE COMING WEEK AS THE SOUTHWEST MONSOON RETURNS. AS MOISTURE INCREASES OVER THE REGION IN SOUTHERLY MONSOONAL FLOW...THE MAIN STORM THREAT WILL BECOME HEAVY RAIN. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED THIS AFTERNOON OR TONIGHT... THOUGH SPOTTERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO CALL IN RAINFALL...HAIL OR WIND REPORTS. NL
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Colorado in 2004Every state in 2004This day in weather historyWarnings in Colorado, July 2004
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5416818.