Good morning southern Colorado, here's what you need to know on your Friday, September 17.
If you'd like to read the full story, be sure to click on the story headline.
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Get your latest First Alert 5 Weather forecast
Friday morning a windy cold front is moving through Southern Colorado.
Wind gusts have been up to 51 mph at the Colorado Springs Airport. As the front continues to accelerate south, wind gusts will be between 40-55 mph through the morning.
By mid-day winds will be calming down and will be just breezy this afternoon. Thanks to this front, temperatures will be a whole lot cooler, to the 60s and 70s!
It will feel like a little taste of fall. Expect a high of 74 in Colorado Springs, 77 in Pueblo, 76 in Canon City and 70 in Woodland Park.
The warmest air will be in interior mountain regions because the cold front is too shallow to make it over the foothills.
The sky will be mostly sunny Friday and this front will not bring rain, but humidity will increase a bit which will help reduce wildfire threats a bit.
Yet it is so windy and grasses are dry so any fire that starts will spread rapidly. Looking ahead to the weekend, expect a boost of heat back to the 80s and 90s in the plains on Saturday with sunshine.
Sunday will be a breezy day and about 5 degrees cooler than Saturday. Overall it will be a pleasant late summer weekend.
Big changes come next week. The cold front that we gave you the first alert about this week now looks to move in Monday afternoon, bringing strong winds and a chance of afternoon showers, some of the rain will transition to snow overnight, perhaps the snow line getting as low as 9,000 feet.
This will leave Tuesday much cooler to the 60s and 70s and feeling like fall.
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Pfizer says booster shots safe, necessary for Americans in report to FDA
An FDA advisory committee will meet Friday to talk about recommending booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
This come three days before president Biden's administration plans to begin offering third shots for Americans.
Boosters are currently available in the U.S. under emergency use authorization for those considered to be immuno-compromised.
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Coronavirus exhibit opens Friday remembering those killed by the virus
An exhibit remembering those killed by the coronavirus opens up Friday in the National Mall in Washington.
Each of the 665,000 white flags represent a person in America who lost their life to the virus.
If you can't make it to the exhibit, you can write a dedication online and a volunteer will write it down on a flag.
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Boulder County reinstating indoor mask requirement
Boulder County has become the first county in Colorado to reinstate a mask mandate. Pitkin County is poised to do the same.
The latest CDC guidance recommends fully vaccinated people continue wearing mask indoors in areas where the new variant is surging.
As of Friday morning, only three Colorado counties fell outside of that recommendation.
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Teller County under Stage I Fire Restrictions
Because of current conditions, Stage I fire restrictions are now in effect for Teller County, Unincorporated El Paso County and Manitou Springs.
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