1 person dead, another hurt in Northern Colorado after suspected microburst
One person died and another was injured on Saturday in a grass fire in Northern Colorado, Greeley police said. It happened in the early afternoon after sudden high winds knocked down power lines near the intersection of Highway 34 and Highway 85.
Photos of the scene appear to show a significant amount of smoke and a small fire in the nearby grass. Colorado Department of Transportation traffic cameras in the area show a burn scar along U.S. 85 near Highway 34.
Greeley police said the grass fire spread across open land near unhoused encampments. Attempts to put out the fire were delayed partly due to safety concerns about live power lines.
The person who died was a 45-year-old woman. She was found dead in the burn area. The person who was hurt was a 48-year-old man and his injuries were described as critical. He was taken to a hospital in Denver. Neither of those people has been identified.
The wind event appears to have been a microburst, and it also damaged trees.
The intersection of Highway 34 and Highway 85 was shut down during the incident.
Xcel Energy's outage map showed four outages reported in the surrounding area, affecting 319 customers. Following the suspected microburst, the map showed more than 3,000 customers without power. Restoration estimates vary by location.
A microburst is a concentrated burst of sinking air that descends from a thunderstorm and strikes the ground. The air then spreads rapidly outward, producing strong and sometimes damaging winds across a relatively small area.
The National Weather Service said, "There have been at least 3 outflow boundaries that have moved through Greeley in the last 2 hours or so. The Greeley airport (KGXY) observations show several periods this afternoon with wind gusts of 25-40 mph. Unfortunately, these are the closest (and best) observations to that area."
According to CBS Colorado Meteorologist Joe Ruch, there were "likely some isolated gusts that were stronger than that, as indicated by velocity."
