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Weather Alert Friday: Red Flag Warnings for high fire danger

Posted at 12:30 PM, Dec 21, 2018
and last updated 2018-12-21 14:34:24-05

Today’s Forecast:
It’s been awhile, but Red Flag Warnings are back in effect through southern Colorado. From El Paso county down through Las Animas, strong winds and dry air work together to create dangerous, fire prone weather conditions. The winds will be strongest across southern El Paso, Fremont and Pueblo counties, but several strong gusts will still blow through Huerfano and Las Animas counties. Despite this being the first day of winter and the shortest day of the year, we’ll actually be very warm with highs in the upper 50s and 60s across the lower elevations!

COLORADO SPRINGS: High – 59; Low – 27. Partly sunny with gusty afternoon winds and very dry air. The biggest wind gusts will occur down by Fort Carson and blow over 25 mph.

PUEBLO: High – 64; Low – 25. Partly cloudy with very strong winds and dry air. The biggest afternoon wind gusts will be in the mid 30 mph range, meaning fire danger will be very high.

CANON CITY: High – 62; Low – 29. Partly sunny with very strong winds and dry air. The biggest wind gusts this afternoon will be in the upper 30 mph range, meaning fire danger will stay very high today.

WOODLAND PARK: High – 52; Low – 22. Partly sunny today with dry air and gusty winds. The biggest wind gusts will be in the 20 mph range, but Teller county is not in the Red Flag Warning.

TRI-LAKES: High – 50s; Low – 20s. Breezy winds under partly sunny skies, and while the Tri Lakes area is under a Red Flag Warning, the winds really won’t be that bad.

PLAINS: High – 60s; Low – 20s. Partly cloudy today with gusty winds and very warm air. The winds will be gusty, but most of the plains remain out of the highest fire danger.

WALSENBURG/TRINIDAD: High– 50s; Low– 20s. Partly sunny with very dry air and high fire danger. The biggest afternoon wind gusts will be in the mid 30 mph range.


WEEKEND OUTLOOK:
Snow will move into the mountains tonight and eventually pull east into the plains north of the Palmer Divide. Some of this light snow could fall over Monument Hill and areas east of the hill along the plains, but it’s important to note that very little to any accumulation of snow, or light rain, is expected. Timing for light snow or flurries would be in the afternoon, mainly along Monument Hill and northern El Paso counties. The biggest thing most of you will notice Saturday and Sunday is simply the cool down as highs return to the 40s.

WINTER STORM POSSIBLE NEXT WEEK:
Will we have a white Christmas? Well… it’ll be close! There is a winter storm complex building out over the Pacific Ocean, and it looks like it could be a major weather impact for southern Colorado Christmas night through Wednesday. It’s very far out to know how much snow is coming, but model run after model run is placing heavy, blowing snow right over southern Colorado falling from Tuesday night through Wednesday evening. Travel during that time frame could be dangerous, especially through the mountains. We’ll keep an eye on this system and post our expected snow totals when we can.