The dry conditions allowed for another wildfire to spread near Flatiron Reservoir in the foothills west of Loveland; as crews were wrapping up the Fourmile Canyon Wildfire near Boulder. The fire started the day after a resident burned some debris on his property.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
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 BOU wrote it up.
The dry conditions allowed for another wildfire to spread near Flatiron Reservoir in the foothills west of Loveland; as crews were wrapping up the Fourmile Canyon Wildfire near Boulder. The fire started the day after a resident burned some debris on his property. The dry conditions coupled with gusty winds allowed the debris to reignite and the ensuing wildfire to spread. Two homes, 5 other structures, several vehicles and a total of 750 square acres were consumed by the blaze.
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 Denver/Boulder, CO wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Sep 12, 2:00 AM MST, 7 hours earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER CO 300 AM MDT SUN SEP 12 2010 .SHORT TERM...ANOTHER WARM DRY DAY TODAY UNDER HIGH PRESSURE. WESTERLY FLOW ALOFT WILL PRODUCE SOME WIND GUSTS OVER THE HIGHER MOUNTAINS/FOOTHILLS EARLY BUT THE WIND ALOFT WILL BE DECREASING THIS MORNING. SOME QUESTION ABOUT HOW MUCH THE DRIER AIR WILL MIX TO THE SURFACE...THERE IS A BIT BETTER LOW LEVEL MOISTURE UPSTREAM OVER WESTERN COLORADO...BUT BETWEEN 650 MB AND 300 MB VERY DRY. WITH DEEP MIXING...SUSPECT THE DEW POINTS WILL TANK AGAIN OVER MOST OF THE AREA...WITH SOME LOW LEVEL ADVECTION HELPING TO HOLD THEM UP OVER THE EASTERN PART OF THE PLAINS. NAM SEEMS TO HAVE A GOOD HANDLE ON THESE DETAILS...I LOWERED THE DEW POINTS A BIT MORE MAINLY THIS AFTERNOON AND USED THE NAM WINDS. WAY TOO DRY FOR ANY CONVECTION BUT A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF HIGH CIRRUS. WITH LIGHT WINDS AND DRY AIR AGAIN TONIGHT I LOWERED THE MIN TEMPS...AGAIN CLOSER TO GUIDANCE... AS IT LOOKS LIKE THE HIGH CLOUDS SHOULD NOT HAVE TOO MUCH IMPACT. .LONG TERM...MODELS KEEP SHOWING AN UPPER RIDGE AXIS OVER OR JUST EAST OF THE FORECAST AREA MONDAY THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT. THE FLOW ALOFT IS PROGGED TO WEST-SOUTHWESTERLY AT SPEEDS OF 55 TO 80 KNOTS. THE SYNOPTIC SCALE ENERGY OVER THE FORECAST AREA IS PROGGED TO BE BENIGN THROUGH THE PERIOD. MODELS CONTINUE TO SHOW FAIRLY WEAK NORTHEAST TO SOUTHEAST BOUNDARY LAYER FLOW OVER THE PLAINS AND LOWER FOOTHILLS THROUGH THE PERIOD. FOR MOISTURE...THERE IS A BIT IN THE MID AND UPPER LEVELS THROUGH THE PERIOD. BY TUESDAY AND TUESDAY NIGHT...BOTH MODELS SHOW A BIT OF LOW LEVEL MOISTURE GETTING INTO THE EASTERN PLAINS. BOUNDARY LAYER DEW POINTS ARE PROGGED TO BE IN THE LOWER 20S F WEST TO LOWER 40S F EAST ON MONDAY. THEY STAY IN THE MID 10S F TO UPPER 20S F FOR MOST AREAS MONDAY NIGHT AND TUESDAY ...WITH LOWER 30S F TO LOWER 50S F OVER THE EASTERN THIRD OF THE PLAINS. BY TUESDAY NIGHT...THE 20S F STAY OVER THE MOUNTAINS AND FOOTHILLS...WITH LOWER 60S OVER MOST OF THE PLAINS...THE FRONT RANGE PLAINS TO BE IN THE GRADIENT. PRECIPITABLE WATER VALUES ARE IN THE 0.35 TO 0.50 INCH RANGE MONDAY THROUGH TUESDAY...WITH HIGHER NUMBERS OVER THE FAR EAST. BY TUESDAY NIGHT...VALUES INCREASE INTO THE 0.40 TO 0.65 INCH RANGE...BUT OVER 1.00 INCH OVER THE FAR EAST. THE LAPSE RATE FIELDS KEEP A WEAK MID LEVEL CAP IN PLACE THROUGH THE PERIOD. THE ONLY CAPE INDICATED OVER THE FORECAST AREA IS OVER THE NORTHEAST CORNER LATER MONDAY NIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY'S NIGHT. LATE DAY TUESDAY...VALUES ARE AS HIGH AS 1600 J/KG OVER THE FAR NORTHEAST CORNER. THERE IS A TAD OF MEASURABLE PRECIPITATION INDICATED OVER THE FAR NORTHEAST CORNER ON THE GFS QPF GRIDS FOR TUESDAY MORNING. BY LATE DAY TUESDAY...THE GFS HAS SOME OVER THE EASTERN HALF OF THE PLAINS...AND EVEN THE NAM HAS A TINY BIT THEN AS WELL. FOR POPS... WILL GO 10-20%S LATE MONDAY NIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT FOR THE EASTERN PLAINS ONLY. FOR TEMPERATURES...MONDAY'S HIGHS WILL BE QUITE CLOSE TO SUNDAY'S HIGHS. TUESDAY'S ARE MAYBE 1 C COOLER. FOR THE LATER DAYS...WEDNESDAY THROUGH SATURDAY...MODELS HAVE WEAK UPPER TROUGHING WEDNESDAY INTO THURSDAY FOR THE FORECAST AREA...THEN MORE FLAT UPPER RIDGING FRIDAY AND SATURDAY. THE BEST MOISTURE IS WEDNESDAY INTO THURSDAY...BUT IT'S NOT GREAT. IT IS PRETTY DRY FRIDAY AND SATURDAY. TEMPERATURES STAY FAIRLY WARM. .AVIATION...VFR CONDITIONS AND LIGHT WINDS EXPECTED THROUGH TONIGHT. && .BOU WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...NONE. && GIMMESTAD/RJK
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER CO 959 AM MDT SUN SEP 12 2010 COZ030>051-131200- JACKSON COUNTY BELOW 9000 FEET-WEST JACKSON AND WEST GRAND COUNTIES ABOVE 9000 FEET-GRAND AND SUMMIT COUNTIES BELOW 9000 FEET-SOUTH AND EAST JACKSON/LARIMER/NORTH AND NORTHEAST GRAND/ NORTHWEST BOULDER COUNTIES ABOVE 9000 FEET-SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST GRAND/WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST BOULDER/GILPIN/CLEAR CREEK/ SUMMIT/NORTH AND WEST PARK COUNTIES ABOVE 9000 FEET-LARIMER AND BOULDER COUNTIES BETWEEN 6000 AND 9000 FEET-JEFFERSON AND WEST DOUGLAS COUNTIES ABOVE 6000 FEET/GILPIN/CLEAR CREEK/NORTHEAST PARK COUNTIES BELOW 9000 FEET-CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST PARK COUNTY-LARIMER COUNTY BELOW 6000 FEET/NORTHWEST WELD COUNTY-BOULDER AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES BELOW 6000 FEET/WEST BROOMFIELD COUNTY-NORTH DOUGLAS COUNTY BELOW 6000 FEET/DENVER/WEST ADAMS AND ARAPAHOE COUNTIES/ EAST BROOMFIELD COUNTY-ELBERT/CENTRAL AND EAST DOUGLAS COUNTIES ABOVE 6000 FEET-NORTHEAST WELD COUNTY-CENTRAL AND SOUTH WELD COUNTY-MORGAN COUNTY-CENTRAL AND EAST ADAMS AND ARAPAHOE COUNTIES- NORTH AND NORTHEAST ELBERT COUNTY BELOW 6000 FEET/NORTH LINCOLN COUNTY-SOUTHEAST ELBERT COUNTY BELOW 6000 FEET/SOUTH LINCOLN COUNTY-LOGAN COUNTY-WASHINGTON COUNTY-SEDGWICK COUNTY-PHILLIPS COUNTY- 959 AM MDT SUN SEP 12 2010 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTHEAST AND NORTH CENTRAL COLORADO. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. HIGH PRESSURE REMAINS OVER COLORADO TODAY. THERE WILL BE SOME HIGH CLOUDS DRIFTING OVER THE STATE...BUT IT WILL STILL BE A LITTLE WARMER AND DRIER THAN YESTERDAY. THE VERY LOW HUMIDITIES WILL MAINTAIN HIGH TO VERY HIGH FIRE DANGER...BUT WINDS WILL GENERALLY BE LIGHT. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED TODAY OR TONIGHT. MEIER/BAKER
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 2010Every state in 2010This day in weather historyWarnings in Colorado, September 2010
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: 258771.