The Dinosaur Fire, which scorched approximately 3.5 acres on Friday, July 12, will almost certainly not be the last blaze Boulder will face this year, according to Seth McKinney, the fire management officer for the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office. He said the fire served as a good test of the area’s fire capabilities.
“We all — fire districts and wildfire personnel — feel that we are going to have a fire season this year,” McKinney said. “I say that because we really didn’t have one last year.”
Parts of Boulder County entered a severe drought designation the day before the fire broke out. The drought label followed a record-breaking dry stretch for Boulder.
Matthew Kelsch, a climate observer at the NOAA station, told Boulder Reporting Lab that May to June 2024 experienced only 0.71 inches of rain, making it “the driest in Boulder’s recorded weather history.” He noted that the previous record for the driest May-June period was 1.13 inches, set in 1899.
Even so, modest winds allowed firefighters to fully contain the Dinosaur blaze by 6 p.m. on Saturday, about 30 hours after it was called in. McKinney said the fire was a good test of the county’s capabilities as the fire season begins, and results were good.
“Yesterday really was a good exercise for in testing out capabilities, and I think most of us are pleased,” he said. “No doubt that we have more work to do and will continue to finetune our processes, but the response was good.”
“I think we all know it will be a long, hot summer,” he added, “but we are going to take it as it comes and focus on each initial response.”
