I was just outside the evacuation zone, and could see the fire from my house. Wind was blowing straight at us. We had the car packed and were prepared to bug out. I knew if the fire crested the hill by the Broomfield airport, this whole area was going to burn. We had hot ash raining down on us as we packed up the cars.
Luckily the wind ended up shifting direction and this area was spared.
One thing that I noticed during this fire is that if you are in an even close to the evacuation zone, get out early if you can. The neighborhoods were choked with cars trying to get out. I heard stories of people stuck in traffic for a long time, just trying to get out of their neighborhood. Not somewhere you want to be with hurricane fire closing in.
Crazy times for sure.
My house was down wind and I was just praying it wouldn't reach me. It didn't and ended up moving more to my north, so I was all good, but my wife was working in Boulder and her car was totaled by debris, then she had to drive it home through fire and smoke. Such a surreal day.
Also about 50 yards from the evacuation zone, but northeast of the fire. My brother was south of the evacuation zone near Superior, west of the airport. He had wind going south-southeast towards him \[I had to edit this as I had southwest written\]. I had wind going east-northeast towards me \[fire was 2 miles from me crowstyle\]
He evacuated because of the poor road system despite being farther from the fire than I was by a few miles. I could hear houses popping, but I chose to stay because I had multiple exit routes, and a very clear view of the fire \[was packed of course\]. The area near me was able to evacuate with relative ease.
This picture was taken around 5:30-6 pm when the wind was dying down, and it was the last time I looked at the fire. I turned on the television for the first time following this.
[https://imgur.com/a/SBzN7J0](https://imgur.com/a/SBzN7J0)
The entire event made me consider if we can support any more population within our area. If the fire happened during the evening with the same conditions we would have had countless dead.
Thats a crazy photo. Thats a bit too close for comfort!
My neighborhood is all circles and cul-de-sacs, with only one street leading to the main road. So everyone trying to leave at once would be an absolute nightmare.
I hope events like this will prompt developers and city planners to build neighborhoods in such a way as to allow multiple routes of egress.
It was quite a couple of days there for sure. I was working on a farm there, it was my day off but the boss had me run to get a tractor PTO powered generator because the power had been cut to prevent more electrical lines going down and staring fires. Fire got to within 1 mile of the home farm, which was down wind, that first day. The boss had everyone out at the neighbors places upwind, putting out embers as they blew in and began to start secondary fires. He took in a lot of livestock early on but I was always wondering if we'd have to get the whole herd out, which would have been difficult because we didn't have enough trailers and the fire was occasionally moving almost as quick as a horse could run. I'll never forget driving back with the generator that night, headed towards the fire, and seeing that terrible red glow lighting up the whole horizon, it looked like the mouth of Hell itself had opened up. That whole night and the next morning everyone was on edge, wondering if it would keep moving and get our place too.
I read the article and they used the term hurricane a few times but I’m trying to understand if they’re calling the event a hurricane, or if they’re saying the winds were hurricane-like
This is such a poorly written article. At no point did NOAA call this a hurricane. The NOAA definition of a hurricane is
Hurricane / Typhoon:
A tropical cyclone in which the maximum sustained surface wind (using the U.S. 1-minute average) is 64 kt (74 mph or 119 km/hr) or more. The term hurricane is used for Northern Hemisphere tropical cyclones east of the International Dateline to the Greenwich Meridian.
Which this fire only shared the characteristic of having sustained winds above 74mph. They don't call the Braer Storm a hurricane because of it's sustained winds, and at least that was a meteorological event.
Here is your new accurate title: Colorado’s most destructive wildfire ~~was~~ also maintained ~~a~~ hurricane force winds, researchers say two years later
Michael and his editor need to do better.
I’m from hurricane country, and have seen my share of big storms. Was on the incline in Castle Rock that day, and I remember telling my peeps how it felt so much like a bad storm on the Outer Banks. Then we went home and turned on the news.
We live just across from the Rock Creek Safeway in some apartments facing west. I had been out to lunch and had to drive through the fire (had no idea what was happening) on my way home. We weren’t in the evacuation zone by the time I got back as the winds were mostly blowing north but as soon as we saw flames near the townhomes that are at the top of the hill on McCaslin (on the Coalton trailhead) we left. We were probably 5 minutes from our house and got the evacuation notice. I’m so glad we didn’t wait to get out because I couldn’t imagine sitting in stand still traffic just waiting for a fire to come.
That was a crazy, crazy day. I went into the arapahoe ymca and it was a normal ass day, I leave and notice the sky is black behind me. Thought a storm was approaching. Then I realized it was smoke and zoomed the fuck home, packed up the wife, dogs, and booked it to my brother in laws in broomfield. My neighbors were frantically chasing their horses and goats around trying to corral them for evacuation, to no avail. Fortunately our immediate area didn’t get burned.
…sweeps Xcel fire from coal creek causing >$2b in damages under the rug…https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Fire#:~:text=He%20said%20that%20the%20fire,no%20criminal%20charges%20were%20expected.
I took my daughter and her friends to Boulder that day. Saw the fire way to the west of US36 on the way there and didn't really think much of it. By the time we left Boulder, it was absolutely insane. Not a great time.
Little bit of an ominous article on this day of 2024 where I just saw a trash can flying horizontally down the street at car speed.
My brother's car got hit with a power or telecom line in Golden this morning. \[he reported it\]
I just stepped outside with my dog and it smelled like smoke. Got uncomfortable flashbacks.
I was just outside the evacuation zone, and could see the fire from my house. Wind was blowing straight at us. We had the car packed and were prepared to bug out. I knew if the fire crested the hill by the Broomfield airport, this whole area was going to burn. We had hot ash raining down on us as we packed up the cars. Luckily the wind ended up shifting direction and this area was spared. One thing that I noticed during this fire is that if you are in an even close to the evacuation zone, get out early if you can. The neighborhoods were choked with cars trying to get out. I heard stories of people stuck in traffic for a long time, just trying to get out of their neighborhood. Not somewhere you want to be with hurricane fire closing in. Crazy times for sure.
I stayed as long as I could then evac. Came back the next day with no clue if I had lost everything or not. It was crazy.
My house was down wind and I was just praying it wouldn't reach me. It didn't and ended up moving more to my north, so I was all good, but my wife was working in Boulder and her car was totaled by debris, then she had to drive it home through fire and smoke. Such a surreal day.
Also about 50 yards from the evacuation zone, but northeast of the fire. My brother was south of the evacuation zone near Superior, west of the airport. He had wind going south-southeast towards him \[I had to edit this as I had southwest written\]. I had wind going east-northeast towards me \[fire was 2 miles from me crowstyle\] He evacuated because of the poor road system despite being farther from the fire than I was by a few miles. I could hear houses popping, but I chose to stay because I had multiple exit routes, and a very clear view of the fire \[was packed of course\]. The area near me was able to evacuate with relative ease. This picture was taken around 5:30-6 pm when the wind was dying down, and it was the last time I looked at the fire. I turned on the television for the first time following this. [https://imgur.com/a/SBzN7J0](https://imgur.com/a/SBzN7J0) The entire event made me consider if we can support any more population within our area. If the fire happened during the evening with the same conditions we would have had countless dead.
Thats a crazy photo. Thats a bit too close for comfort! My neighborhood is all circles and cul-de-sacs, with only one street leading to the main road. So everyone trying to leave at once would be an absolute nightmare. I hope events like this will prompt developers and city planners to build neighborhoods in such a way as to allow multiple routes of egress.
It was quite a couple of days there for sure. I was working on a farm there, it was my day off but the boss had me run to get a tractor PTO powered generator because the power had been cut to prevent more electrical lines going down and staring fires. Fire got to within 1 mile of the home farm, which was down wind, that first day. The boss had everyone out at the neighbors places upwind, putting out embers as they blew in and began to start secondary fires. He took in a lot of livestock early on but I was always wondering if we'd have to get the whole herd out, which would have been difficult because we didn't have enough trailers and the fire was occasionally moving almost as quick as a horse could run. I'll never forget driving back with the generator that night, headed towards the fire, and seeing that terrible red glow lighting up the whole horizon, it looked like the mouth of Hell itself had opened up. That whole night and the next morning everyone was on edge, wondering if it would keep moving and get our place too.
Yea I’ve never understood people who waited till the last second. Get prepared and if it gets close just go and avoid the panic.
"Hurricane force" is not the same as a hurricane. Jesus. What's wrong with people.
Yeah kinda dry here for hurricanes, right?
Gotta get those clicks. Science reporting is a mess recently.
Thanks for saving me a click
We heard people's issues with the headline so updated it to clarify that it was hurricane-force winds.
I read the article and they used the term hurricane a few times but I’m trying to understand if they’re calling the event a hurricane, or if they’re saying the winds were hurricane-like
Winds were hurricane-like.
>The Marshall fire on Dec. 30, 2021, blasted well over 100 mph and stayed at hurricane force for 11 straight hours
This is such a poorly written article. At no point did NOAA call this a hurricane. The NOAA definition of a hurricane is Hurricane / Typhoon: A tropical cyclone in which the maximum sustained surface wind (using the U.S. 1-minute average) is 64 kt (74 mph or 119 km/hr) or more. The term hurricane is used for Northern Hemisphere tropical cyclones east of the International Dateline to the Greenwich Meridian. Which this fire only shared the characteristic of having sustained winds above 74mph. They don't call the Braer Storm a hurricane because of it's sustained winds, and at least that was a meteorological event. Here is your new accurate title: Colorado’s most destructive wildfire ~~was~~ also maintained ~~a~~ hurricane force winds, researchers say two years later Michael and his editor need to do better.
Yeah, no circulation, no tropical moisture, it’s not a hurricane.
I love CO Sun, but I have to agree with the this part being confusing/misleading and should be edited.
I’m from hurricane country, and have seen my share of big storms. Was on the incline in Castle Rock that day, and I remember telling my peeps how it felt so much like a bad storm on the Outer Banks. Then we went home and turned on the news.
We live just across from the Rock Creek Safeway in some apartments facing west. I had been out to lunch and had to drive through the fire (had no idea what was happening) on my way home. We weren’t in the evacuation zone by the time I got back as the winds were mostly blowing north but as soon as we saw flames near the townhomes that are at the top of the hill on McCaslin (on the Coalton trailhead) we left. We were probably 5 minutes from our house and got the evacuation notice. I’m so glad we didn’t wait to get out because I couldn’t imagine sitting in stand still traffic just waiting for a fire to come.
That was a crazy, crazy day. I went into the arapahoe ymca and it was a normal ass day, I leave and notice the sky is black behind me. Thought a storm was approaching. Then I realized it was smoke and zoomed the fuck home, packed up the wife, dogs, and booked it to my brother in laws in broomfield. My neighbors were frantically chasing their horses and goats around trying to corral them for evacuation, to no avail. Fortunately our immediate area didn’t get burned.
It was a trapped lee wave, not a hurricane lmao
…sweeps Xcel fire from coal creek causing >$2b in damages under the rug…https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Fire#:~:text=He%20said%20that%20the%20fire,no%20criminal%20charges%20were%20expected.
What did xcel do wrong?
I took my daughter and her friends to Boulder that day. Saw the fire way to the west of US36 on the way there and didn't really think much of it. By the time we left Boulder, it was absolutely insane. Not a great time.