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416 Fire

Ignited by embers from a coal-fueled passenger train on June 1, 2018, the 416 Fire burned 54,130 acres of the San Juan National Forest in southwest Colorado. By the time it was fully contained on July 31, it had become the sixth-largest wildfire in…

Colorado Climate

Colorado’s combination of high elevation, midlatitude, and continental interior geography results in a cool, dry, and invigorating climate. The average annual temperature for the state is 43.5 degrees Fahrenheit (F), which is 13.7 degrees below the…

Spring Creek Flood of 1997

On July 28, 1997, the city of Fort Collins was inundated with the heaviest rains ever recorded in a Colorado urban area. During the peak of the storm, about six inches fell in an hour and a half. This caused Spring Creek, a tributary of the Cache la…

Willow Creek Park

Willow Creek Park in southeast Lamar was built primarily by the Civil Works Administration and the Works Progress Administration from 1933 to 1938. Using local labor and materials, the New Deal agencies built a series of dams for flood mitigation and…