Fire danger on rise along Front Range

The fire danger in the southern Front Range mountains and on prairie grasslands will be higher than normal the next 90 days, the U.S. Forest Service says.

The short-range forecast for the region, issued by the agency this week, calls for higher-than-normal temperatures and less-than-normal moisture from the Palmer Divide to Rocky Ford from April through June.

The agency predicts increasing fire danger in the coming months at the edge of the Pike National Forest along the Interstate 25 corridor and at the Comanche and Cimarron national grasslands in southeast Colorado.

Brent Botts, district ranger of the Pike National Forest, said Thursday the forecast may seem odd, with Pikes Peak still capped in snow and much of the state yet to dig out from a snowier-than-normal winter.

But he said Front Range forests, including the Pike, haven't had as much snowfall as the mountains deeper in Colorado's interior.

He said he's not particularly worried now about most of the Pike Forest, which is still covered with some snow. He's more worried about fire danger at what experts call the "urban interface" - where mountains meet prairie and where homes are built on hillsides covered with oak brush.

He said the latest forecast on temperature and moisture, coupled with the strong spring winds that typically rake the region and forest floors thick with dead and dormant grasses, could spell trouble for the Front Range.

"We could have some busy days chasing fires," he said.

There may be some good news on the horizon: Botts said the agency's meteorologists are predicting a return to more moderate temperatures and normal precipitation in the typically dangerous summer months.

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