High Wind in Denver Metropolitan Area, Colorado

A vigorous cold front moved through the plains of northeastern Colorado during the afternoon and early evening. Peak wind reports included: 67 mph (58 kts), 21 miles north of New Raymer, 58 mph (51 kts), 15 miles west-northwest of Sterling and 9 miles north of Limon, and 58 mph (50 kts) , 4 miles east of Haxtun and at Greeley, 54 mph (47 kts) at Fort Morgan, 52 mph (45 kts), 2 miles north of Loveland and 48 mph (42 kts) at Denver International Airport.Gusty northerly winds caused numerous outages as power poles, power lines and trees were downed. In Loveland, 250 homes were affected by the outages. In Morgan County, at least 260 homes were without power in the towns of Woodrow and Fort Morgan, as 10 poles were snapped during the windstorm. In addition, downed power lines sparked several fires which burned approximately 80 to 100 acres of wheat. A mobile home was also blown onto its side. At Denver International Airport, the temperature dropped more than 20 degrees in an hour, following the passage of the cold front. Dangerous wind shear conditions at DIA delayed several flights while others were redirected to Colorado Springs. In Montbello, strong winds blew off the roof of a building. More downed power lines sparked a small brush fire, which burned about 10 acres near the former Fitzsimmon's Army Medical Center.