{"id":1320084,"date":"2020-05-18T17:25:32","date_gmt":"2020-05-18T23:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vaildaily.com\/?p=478167"},"modified":"2020-05-19T08:56:53","modified_gmt":"2020-05-19T14:56:53","slug":"eagle-county-under-red-flag-warning-due-to-heat-wind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/eagle-county-under-red-flag-warning-due-to-heat-wind\/","title":{"rendered":"Eagle County under red flag warning due to heat, wind"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"757\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.vaildaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/FireWeather-VDN-051920-2-1024x757.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.vaildaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/FireWeather-VDN-051920-2-1024x757.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.vaildaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/FireWeather-VDN-051920-2-300x222.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.vaildaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/FireWeather-VDN-051920-2-768x568.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.vaildaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/FireWeather-VDN-051920-2-1536x1136.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.vaildaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/FireWeather-VDN-051920-2-600x444.jpg 600w, https:\/\/cdn.vaildaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/FireWeather-VDN-051920-2.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><\/p><figcaption><strong>The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted warmer-than-average May temperatures for most of the western U.S.<\/strong><br \/><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>This week started with a Monday red flag fire weather warning, and another for Tuesday, sending Eagle County into Stage 2 fire restrictions. This could be the start of a tense fire season.<\/p>\n<p>Red flag warnings are issued when the National Weather Service forecasts a combination of strong winds and low relative humidity. Low humidity dries out grasses, shrubs and other fuels. Strong winds can easily whip a small fire into a much larger conflagration.<\/p>\n<p>Eagle County has been under Stage 1 fire restrictions since April 10. Those restrictions were imposed in large part to keep people from using fire outside and had less to do with conditions than the ability of local fire departments to fight a blaze in the midst of a pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Gypsum Fire Protection District Chief Justin Kirkland said those initial restrictions were imposed to keep local firefighters safe during the worst spell so far of the COVID-19 virus. It\u2019s hard to maintain social distancing on a fire line.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row vail-donation vail-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.vaildaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/03\/VD-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.vaildaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/03\/VD-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Kirkland added that for the past month, it\u2019s been unclear how much, if any, outside aid might come in the event of a wildfire. Kirkland said the federal government hadn\u2019t yet funded firefighting efforts for the year.<\/p>\n<p>That funding has been approved, so help can come if needed. In addition, Kirkland said the virus seems a bit better controlled than it was in early April.<\/p>\n<h3>Conditions more fire-prone<\/h3>\n<p>That means the weekly conference calls among local and federal fire officials can now focus on natural conditions instead of possible resources available.<\/p>\n<p>Those conditions are becoming more fire-favorable by the day right now. And, Kirkland said, most of the large wildfires across the U.S. start during red flag warnings.<\/p>\n<p>While the red flag warning lasts only until midnight Tuesday, there isn\u2019t much precipitation in the forecast.<\/p>\n<p>While Monday and Tuesday were warm and windy, temperatures are forecast to drop to more seasonal levels later in the week. Still, there\u2019s little, if any, precipitation in the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n<p>Weather forecasters aren\u2019t confident in predictions more than seven to 10 days in advance.<\/p>\n<p>Tom Renwick, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service\u2019s Grand Junction office, said a high-pressure system is sitting over this region and doesn\u2019t look like it\u2019s going to move any time soon.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what happened during the severe drought year of 2018, when a high-pressure system developed over the desert southwest and didn\u2019t move for much of the summer.<\/p>\n<p>The good news is that there\u2019s been a decent snowpack in the northern Rockies the past two winters. That\u2019s good for the higher elevations but doesn\u2019t much help in the high desert terrain that makes up much of Eagle County.<\/p>\n<p>But water supplies should be adequate, at least for the moment.<\/p>\n<p>While the \u201csnow water equivalent\u201d at Vail Mountain is dropping quickly, snowpack at Fremont Pass \u2014 near the headwaters of the Eagle River \u2014 is still above the 30-year median. The same is true at Copper Mountain, which is near the headwaters of Gore Creek.<\/p>\n<h3>Summer\u2019s outlook not encouraging<\/h3>\n<p>But the story for the summer isn\u2019t encouraging.<\/p>\n<p>Assistant State Climatologist Becky Bolinger said the current snowpack in the northern part of the state is \u201cOK \u2026 but not great.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, she added, the northern part of the state is in much better shape than the southern part of the state.<\/p>\n<p>That part of Colorado \u201cCompletely missed out on any snow in April,\u201d Bolinger said. \u201cThe water supply forecast suffered for that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the northern part of the state has adequate water supplies going into late spring and early summer, Bolinger said there\u2019s little help on the horizon until and unless the seasonal \u201cmonsoon\u201d season hits in July or so.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHold on for the ride,\u201d Bolinger said. \u201cThese fire concerns are probably going to be a big problem for early summer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Vail Daily Business Editor Scott Miller can be reached at <a href=\"mailto:smiller@vaildaily.com\">smiller@vaildaily.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vaildaily.com\/news\/eagle-county-under-red-flag-warning-due-to-heat-wind\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Vail Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted warmer-than-average May temperatures for most of the western U.S. This week started with a Monday red flag fire weather warning, and another for Tuesday, sending Eagle County into Stage 2 fire restrictions. This could be the start of a tense fire season. Red flag warnings are issued [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1320084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-03 22:02:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1320084"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1320089,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320084\/revisions\/1320089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1320084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1320084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1320084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}