00:00Fierce winds have been sparking big concerns about wildfire in parts of the high ground of central Colorado.
00:08We're looking at areas around the front range, I-25, and just a little bit west into the foothills and the mountains.
00:13Strong, strong winds out there, and it's been dry, and the vegetation has been dormant.
00:19So with these pretty intense winds into this evening and into tonight in Cheyenne,
00:24seeing gusts of 70 to 80 miles per hour.
00:26Colorado Springs, 40 to 50 miles per hour, but you get a little bit west into the mountains there.
00:30Areas like Estes Park, very strong wind gusts here.
00:33Some areas seeing gusts of 80-plus miles per hour potential.
00:37And that downsloping wind over the crest of the Rockies and coming down into the I-25 corridor,
00:43the east slopes of the mountains and down to the foothills,
00:46that's where we have the most dramatic downsloping wind going from high elevations,
00:51over 12,000 feet in some spots, all the way down to about 5,000 feet.
00:55The 7,000-foot drop, that's a big deal, and that is strong downsloping.
00:59Destructive winds, low humidity, and planned power shutoffs are often used by power companies,
01:03including in Colorado right now, to shut down the power before trees bring power lines down
01:09so they can assess any potential damage before reenergizing them, mitigating fire threats.
01:15So downsloping winds, we've got strong upper-level winds flowing over the mountains,
01:18and on the downsloping side, it is a drying process.
01:22We've got cool air at the top, and we have some snow showers around parts of the area west of the spine of the mountains.
01:28But downwind, that air actually warms as it gets all the way down the hill and down the mountains there.
01:34And when it comes to the context of fire danger, if you take the same amount of moisture in the atmosphere
01:39and you take this bubble of air and warm it up, warmer air can contain more water vapor.
01:45If you don't add more water vapor, the relative humidity drops in a big way.
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