It's been a hot, dry summer in the West.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the Upper Colorado River Basin, including Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming is currently experiencing moderate to extreme drought conditions.
Drought forecasters are predicting higher than normal temperatures across the Upper Colorado River Basin for the rest of July, along with August and September.
Nels Bjarke, a hydrologist with the Western Water Assessment, says those hotter temperatures are bad news for drought.
"(It) can lead to further drying of the soils linked with increase of evaporation and transpiration, which have the potential to allow the drought to at least stick around, and potentially amplify it," he said, adding that hydrologists aren't counting on monsoon rains to bring relief.
"In the past several decades, precipitation in June and July haven't been reliable alleviators of our drought," he said.
He says it shows how important winter snowpack is… something that wasn't great this year, either.
"What we're seeing in this past year used to be something that was quite anomalous, and in the last two decades or so has become much closer to the normal," he said.
He says these conditions also worsen the potential for wildfires, like those currently burning in western Colorado and eastern Utah.
The Western Water Assessment does work directly with communities in the west around wildfire and drought resiliency planning.
Currently, the largest fire in Colorado is the Turner Gulch Fire, which has burned more than 15,700 acres as of Sunday, July 20. The South Rim Fire near Montrose has burned over 4,000 acres as of July 20. In Utah, the Deer Creek Fire has also burned more than 16,300 acres southeast of La Sal, and part of the fire has crossed the state line into Colorado.
Glen Lewis, a fire behavior analyst working on Turner Gulch, said during a Wednesday, July 16, community meeting that vegetation in western Colorado was historically dry.
"We are at or above the 97th percentile here, which means extremely dry," he said. "Only 3%, maybe even less of the days in the historical record would produce fuels that are drier than this, and so we've got an extended period of extremely dry fuels here."
Rob Powell is with a federal incident management team working on Turner Gulch. On July 16, he emphasized the critical conditions created by the vegetation.
"Your fuels are extremely dry," he said in a Wednesday fire briefing. "Your pinyon juniper, your oakbrush is cured down. There's a lot of cheatgrass, and you realize the steepness of this terrain. It's just not a good place to fight fire, and the fire wants to go."
Powell said the Turner Gulch fire grew by 7,000 acres on Monday, due to a shift in the winds.
All of the fires were caused by lightning strikes.
Drifting smoke hurts air quality
Smoke from these fires has worsened the air quality throughout the region. According to federal data, NOAA satellites are showing smoke plumes blowing northeast from fires in southwestern Colorado and the Four Corners region, causing the air quality index (AQI) for much of the Western Slope to be over 50 during the week of July 14.
Research indicates that prolonged exposure to wildfire smoke can impact immune system functions, as well as cognitive development.
Lisa Gallegos works on emergency preparedness and communicable diseases for Montrose County Public Health.
She says air quality worsened significantly in the county on Monday night, July 14, after the wind picked up and started dispersing smoke.
"I think for Montrose County, I've been here now…for six years, and it's the worst that we've seen it," she said. "Just with the smoke from the fires. We've had other fires around us, but it's never been this close, and so many at one time."
She says those most vulnerable to poor air quality are young children, the elderly, and people with chronic respiratory conditions, like asthma.
"Stay indoors when you can," she said. "You want to have your doors and windows closed, run your air conditioner — if you have an air conditioner — with the fresh air intake closed, so the recirculate mode on, to keep the smoke from getting indoors."
She says if you don't have air conditioning, you should make plans to shelter in place with a neighbor or loved one that does have air conditioning.
Montrose County Public Health is also distributing free KN95 masks to residents impacted by poor air quality.
Impacts to recreation
The fires are also impacting western Colorado's outdoor recreation economy. The Bureau of Land Management has closed public lands access in Mesa, Delta, and Montrose counties, and the South Rim Fire has closed the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
Stuart West is the superintendent of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. He spoke during a community meeting in Montrose on Tuesday, July 15.
"Most of the south rim of the park is burned," he said. "Probably I would say somewhere in the vicinity of 85% … of the south rim is burned. It'll look very different than when you saw it last time."
He said the visitor center and a couple administrative buildings were unscathed, but the maintenance facility was demolished, along with all of the park's heavy equipment.
West said the park has cancelled all campground reservations for the rest of the year, and access to the inner canyon will be closed, even after the fire is controlled.
"When the vegetation's burned and the rock gets hot, it's unstable and it's unpredictable," he said.
Scott Hawkins, Montrose County's emergency manager, also spoke during the July 15 meeting.
"It's a big impact to the community because the national park — it's about $35 million of revenue a year for the city and the county," he said. "It's a big thing and that with that being closed it's going to have, you know, a financial impact on business and everything."
He says firefighters can't accept donations of water or cash, but a great way to support the community is for people to patronize local businesses.
Copyright 2025 Rocky Mountain Community Radio. This story was shared via Rocky Mountain Community Radio, a network of public media stations in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico, including KSJD.
