Lightning strikes in Colorado high country sparking wildfires, but storms bringing extra moisture

After another Colorado afternoon of lightning strikes and heavy rain (and even hail at one point) the White River District of the U.S. Forest Service jumped into action to hunt down another possible lightning strike that started a wildfire in Summit County Wednesday night.

That's after they already dealt with the Meadow Creek Fire (pictured below) where crews were able to contain the fire to a small area but saw the damage left behind from the power of the bolt. The issue is, sometimes these fires don't spark up for days or even weeks later.

Dusty Calfee, engine captain for the White River U.S. Forest District, calls them holdover fires, when there is adequate moisture with a lightning event to stop a fire from starting right away, but when things dry out later on, there are still smoldering embers, and enough to get something cooking. Plus, they aren't always easy access for firefighters in the first place.

"Often they are in remote locations which sometimes go unnoticed for a significant amount of time," Calfee said. 

While he couldn't speak to the comparative number of strikes in the high country, he said the number of strikes was significant, and his crews have been busy trying to track down fires and put them out before they become a real threat -- sort of like whack-a-mole, if the moles eventually got bigger and scarier if you forgot to hit them for a while. 

The good news? That rain takes care of some of the fires right off the bat. Calfee said had these storms all been dry lightning systems, they'd expect a lot more fire locations than when the rain acts as a natural fire suppression system.