Dangerous fire weather conditions on Friday in Denver metro area and parts of the Eastern Plains

Another surge of heightened fire danger is back in the Friday weather picture. A high pressure ridge over the southwest is enhancing jet stream winds at the upper atmospheric levels of Colorado as we get closer to the weekend.

At the same time the drought situation over our region is adding fuel to the risk. The new weekly drought monitor shows that despite several rounds of mountain snow last week conditions are still the same or even worse in many areas of the state. More areas of the southwestern mountains have seen moderate to severe drought expand a bit. The most noticeable element is the extreme to exceptional drought in red over parts of the northern and central mountains show no change from last week. Areas in and near the northern Front Range foothills from Denver to Fort Collins and up to the Continental Divide saw severe drought conditions expand.

The drought problem is making the fire danger for Friday even worse, when you add in strong, gusty winds unseasonably warm temperatures and single-digit relative humidity levels. A red flag warning is posted for the entire Denver metro area up to Fort Collins and out across the Eastern Plains for Friday running 8 a.m. through 6 p.m.

The southern Colorado I-25 corridor is included in the risk for wildfire.

There is a change in the pattern next week starting on Monday that may bring in several chances of moisture across the state along with cooler temperatures.