High Winds And Dry Conditions Fuel Fire Risk This Week

This time of year the forecast in Colorado gets wild. It's hot, it's cold, it's windy but one thing we don't like is when it's hot, windy and DRY.

And that's exactly what we're coming into these next few weeks, which has triggered a Red Flag Warning for a lot of the I-25 corridor and mountains:

Much of the area will have strong winds over the course of this week, especially as we get closer to and into the weekend, making conditions particularly dangerous. As a result, it should go without saying that there should be no outside burning.

Additionally, Xcel Energy has told 9News in Denver that we need to prepare for unplanned outages due to high winds, like we experienced a few weeks back.

Related: What Does No Snowpack Mean For Colorado and Fire Danger? 

Xcel recommends putting together an "outage kit" in case you lose power which should include the following items:

• Battery-powered radio
• Flashlights
• Batteries
• Backup phone chargers
• A phone that does not require electricity
• Non-electric alarm clock
• Bottled water and non-perishable food
• Manual can opener
• First aid kit
• Extension cords (for partial outages)
• Manufacturer’s instructions on how to manually open power-operated doors (e.g. garage doors)
• Xcel Energy phone numbers – 800-895-1999 for residential or 800-481-4700 for business