Strong winds, high fire danger is expected in Denver with snow in Colorado's mountains
High winds across the Front Range will lead to near-critical fire weather along all of the Interstate 25 corridor on Monday. While this is going on, snow will be dumping across Interstate 70 with winds of up to 50 mph creating treacherous travel.
Wind gusts up to 75 mph are expected overnight and out the door Monday morning. The worst of the winds will likely stay on the west side of Denver and in the foothills. The worst of the winds will be between 7 a.m. and noon.
There is a slight chance a mountain wave enhances wind speeds during the early morning which could result in the foothills seeing winds in excess of 75 mph and lead to scattered power outages.
High winds are also fueling fire danger. All the I-25 corridor is under a red flag warning from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Monday. This includes along and south of the I-70 corridor on the Eastern Plains. Extreme caution should be used with any potentially spark causing activities. Grilling and early New Years fireworks are a big no. Winds will lead to rapid fire growth if a fire were to spark.
While all of this is going on across the Plains, impactful snow is expected across the mountains. The combination of 40-50 mph wind gusts and 5 to 12 inches of snow will create very dangerous travel for most of Monday on I-70 and all other mountain roads. Even when the snow comes to an end, blowing snow will significantly reduce visibility.
All the weather begins to calm down overnight Monday and into Tuesday.
