Elephant Butte Fire: Weather Will Cooperate Tuesday
DENVER (CBS4) - The combination of cooler temperatures, higher relative humidity, a chance for rain, and generally light winds should greatly assistance Colorado firefighters battling the Elephant Butte Fire just west of Evergreen on Tuesday.
A summer cold front that sweep into Colorado from the northeast early Tuesday morning will bring favorable weather for the middle of July. This time of year is usually the hottest of the year for Denver and the Front Range including the Evergreen area.
Temperatures reached near 90 degrees on Monday in the area where the fire is burning near Evergreen. Denver reached all the way to 98 degrees. The entire area will be 10 to 20 degrees cooler on Tuesday.
There is also a decent chance for rain in the foothills of Jefferson County during the afternoon and early evening on Tuesday. The chance for rain falling directly over the fire is about 30-40%. The best chance could come between 4 and 6 p.m.
Another concern with wildfires is always the wind. And fortunately wind should stay generally light through Tuesday night. Gusts will mainly stay under 25 mph across the region and should be even lighter in the Evergreen area.
All of this should help firefighters in Jefferson County considerably. It's a different story on the Western Slope. Because the summer cold front is so shallow, it's not able to lift up and over the Continental Divide. Therefore the western half of the state will experience another hot and mainly dry day. This is prompted yet another Red Flag Warning through 8 p.m. Tuesday for cities such as Craig, Grand Junction, Montrose, Durango, and Cortez.
Meanwhile, the weather pattern along the Front Range is set to shift again on Thursday. Upper-level winds will return to the southwest allowing high temperatures in the 90s to return after a two day break.
