Firefighters and other emergency responders have fought 68 wildfires on federal lands in the last 10 days, the Durango Interagency Fire Dispatch Center said Monday in a news release.
Firefighters are responding daily to lightning strikes across Southwest Colorado. Two dozen of those fires occurred during the past weekend – all but one was determined to be caused by lightning. The largest was the KV Fire, which was contained at 10 acres, the news release said. The rest either were contained at a single tree or at less than an acre.
Monsoon season began the first week of July, Joe Ramey, National Weather Service meteorologist, said Monday. He said grasses, shrubs and trees are critically dry right now below 9,500 feet elevation because the San Juan Mountains got below-average snowpack during the winter and spring.
“The San Juans were dry coming into the springtime,” he said. “That came off pretty quickly.”
The Durango area is likely to get some rain today and Wednesday and go back to hot and dry again, Ramey said.
Federal firefighting resources on hand include a team of smokejumpers from Idaho, the San Juan and Pike Hotshots, and local San Juan National Forest crews. Responders also included local fire departments, as well as helicopters from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and Mesa Verde National Park. A Colorado state single-engine air tanker is working out of the tanker base at the Durango-La Plata County Airport.
“A lot of these smoke reports are coming from the public, which is very helpful,” said Justin Moore, assistant manager of the Interagency Fire Dispatch Center, in the news release.
Ramey said the San Juan foothills, north of Durango and northeast of Cortez, are seeing a lot of lightning strikes. Most thunderstorms produce some rain but may also produce lightning strikes outside the rain area.
“All thunderstorms, even if it’s ‘wet’ or ‘dry,’ all thunderstorms that are producing lightning have the potential to be starting fires if the fuels on the ground are dry and tinder,” Ramey said. “Even if they are producing a rain shaft, those lightning strikes don’t necessarily strike in that rain shaft where the rain can help put it out.”
Call the fire dispatch center at (970) 385-1324 to report a fire on federal lands.
smueller@durangoherald.com
