Monsoon season is in full swing across much of the American Southwest.
As the jet stream moves from mostly west to east, it dips just south enough during the month of July most summers to pick up moisture moving north from the Gulf of California, moisture that often turns into the kind of thunderstorms that can bring inches of rain in mere minutes and hail the size of baseballs.
Those storms do wonders to replenish the drought-ridden portions of the states of New Mexico, Colorado, and the like with copious amounts of water, refilling reservoirs and pushing streams to the top of their banks across the multiple mountain ranges in the area. However, those very same storms also produce the kind of lightning that, in the wrong scenario, can cause wildfires to break out in those same very, very dry places.
Such was the case on July 10th, as lightning strikes sparked a pair of fires within the boundaries of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in central Colorado. The fires prompted evacuations of the park, as the press release from the National Park Service relayed, with no timetable for the reopening of the park itself. Olivia Prentzel of The Colorado Sun reported that evacuations were underway for both staff and visitors.
There are currently fires active on both the North Rim and South Rim. The National Park itself encompasses over 30,000 acres.
As of the time of writing this on Thursday afternoon, there is still a Red Flag Warning in place for Gunnison, Colorado, some 60 miles to the east of the park, as well as in Montrose, Colorado some 12 miles to its west.
The good news (and bad news) is that there will be a chance of thunderstorms in the region just about every day for the next week to ten days, meaning these fires could potentially get meaningful moisture dumped on them to aid the firefighting efforts. Of course, those same storms could cause fires elsewhere that those same firefighters would then have to fight.
Such is life in the Rockies during the month of July.
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