This human-caused wildfire was named the Turkey Track Fire and occurred in Horse Thief Creek Canyon near DeBeque. Backfire from a pickup truck ignited some grass near Horse Canyon Road.
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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 human-caused wildfire was named the Turkey Track Fire and occurred in Horse Thief Creek Canyon near DeBeque. Backfire from a pickup truck ignited some grass near Horse Canyon Road. The fire quickly grew to 450 acres and changing winds made containment difficult. More than 100 firefighters and two air tankers battled the blaze. One home and a garage were destroyed by the fire. Additionally, a small camper trailer and a water tender truck were overtaken by the flames.
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 29, 3:09 AM MST, 8 hours 51 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND JUNCTION CO 409 AM MDT FRI JUL 29 2005 .SHORT TERM (TODAY THROUGH SATURDAY NIGHT)... TODAY SHOULD SEE THE START OF SOME CHANGE IN THE PATTERN. HIGH PRESSURE REMAINS CENTERED OVER THE REGION...WITH DRY AND STABLE NW FLOW THIS MORNING...SHIFTING TO WEAK SOUTHWEST FLOW ALOFT THIS AFTERNOON AS THE RIDGE AXIS MOVES OVERHEAD. MOISTURE...CLOUDS...AND WEATHER OVER NEVADA AND NORTHWEST UT SHOULD REMAIN WEST OF THE FORECAST AREA TODAY...BUT MAY CREEP INTO NORTHEAST UTAH THIS EVENING AND OVERNIGHT. NAM AND GFS BOTH PREDICTING INCREASING MOISTURE LATE TONIGHT THROUGH SATURDAY...BUT KEEP IT ABOVE 600 MB. HAVE PUSHED BACK THE PROJECTED INCREASE AND CLOUDS AND PRECIPITATION UNTIL LATER THIS AFTERNOON AND THIS EVENING...STILL KEEPING ISOLD EVERYWHERE EXCEPT OVER THE EASTERN UINTA MOUNTAINS...WHERE SCATTERED POPS PROGGED. LOWER LEVELS SHOULD GRADUALLY MOISTEN AND ALLOW MORE RAIN TO REACH THE GROUND ON SATURDAY AND SAT NGT...BUT THIS REALLY ISNT A GOOD MONSOON SETUP. HIGH CENTER REMAINS TOO FAR WEST AND THE BEST MONSOONAL PUSH REMAINS WEST OF THE FORECAST AREA. EASTERN UTAH AND WESTERN COLORADO SHOULD BE LEFT WITH WHATEVER MOISTURE ROTATES AROUND AND/OR REMAINS TRAPPER BENEATH...THE HIGH CENTER. TEMPS CONTINUE TO FAVOR THE COOLER MAV/GFS TEMP GUIDANCE AS MET/NAM CONTINUES TO BE TOO WARM. CONTINUING ACROSS MUCH OF EASTERN UTAH AND WESTERN COLORADO. LITTLE CHANGE EXPECTED FROM THIS PATTERN THROUGH FRIDAY MORNING...WITH DRY AND MOSTLY CLEAR CONDITIONS REMAINING IN PLACE. MODELS HAVE STARTED TO BACK OFF THE INCREASE IN LOW/MID LEVEL MOISTURE ACROSS THE NORTHERN ZONES FRIDAY AFTERNOON...AND HAVE TRIMMED POPS BACK SLIGHTLY WITH FCSTD PRECIPITABLE WATER VALUES LOWER THAN WE WERE EARLIER THINKING. BETTER MOISTURE INCREASES THROUGHOUT THE NORTHERN EDGE OF THE RIDGE FRIDAY NIGHT AND SATURDAY. THIS WILL GRADUALLY FILL THROUGHOUT THE RIDGE...RESULTING IN A BETTER CHANCE OF CONVECTION ACROSS EASTERN UTAH AND WESTERN COLORADO ON SATURDAY. LOW LEVELS MAY BE SUFFICIENTLY WET TO PROVIDE STORMS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING WETTING RAINS...ESPECIALLY OVER THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS. ANOTHER WARM AFTERNOON ON FRIDAY WITH H7 TEMPS APPROACHING +19 C...WHICH WOULD BRING MORE TRIPLE DIGIT HEAT TO THE LOWER VALLEYS. .LONG TERM (SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY)...UPPER LEVEL RIDGE REMAINS FIRMLY IN PLACE THROUGH THE PERIOD. MOISTURE WILL REMAIN TRAPPED...FUELING CHANCE/SLIGHT CHANCE POPS EACH PERIOD. HAVE BROAD BRUSHED THE FORECAST KEEPING SOME MENTION IN THE NIGHTTIME PERIODS AS NOCTURNAL ACTIVITY COMMON WITH THIS TYPE OF PATTERN. LATE WED/EARLY THU THE GFS AND EC INDICATE A SHORTWAVE WILL PASS OVER THE NORTHERN ROCKIES AND FLATTEN THE RIDGE A LITTLE. THIS COULD HELP DRY US OUT A NOTCH... HOWEVER ENERGY FROM THE WAVE WILL KEEP POPS FROM DECREASING. THE GFS SHOWS THE RIDGE REBOUNDING ON FRI. HIGH TEMPS WILL BE NEAR TO A COUPLE DEGREES BELOW NORMAL...WITH LOW TEMPS A COUPLE DEGREES WARMER THAN NORMAL. && .GJT WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... .CO...NONE. .UT...NONE. && CJC/EH
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND JUNCTION CO 519 AM MDT FRI JUL 29 2005 COZ001>014-017>023-UTZ022>025-027>029-301200- 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- 519 AM MDT FRI JUL 29 2005 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR EASTERN UTAH...MOST OF THE VALLEYS OF WESTERN COLORADO...AND THE PLATEAUS OF WEST-CENTRAL COLORADO. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT... NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY... ISOLATED TO SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS ARE POSSIBLE THURSDAY. GUSTY WINDS...CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING...LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN AND SMALL HAIL MAY OCCUR WITH THE THUNDERSTORMS. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED TODAY OR TONIGHT. CJC
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 2005Every state in 2005This day in weather historyWarnings in Colorado, July 2005
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: 5470059.