This time last year, Colorado’s drought was at its lowest level in nearly two decades. One-hundred percent of the state was drought-free.

As of June 30, 2020, more than 84 percent of the state is experiencing abnormally dry conditions and 56 percent of the state is experiencing severe, extreme or exceptional drought.

“What makes or breaks a fire season is ignition and wind,” Tim Mathewson, a meteorologist at the Bureau of Land Management said. “This year, we have had some hellacious wind events.”

“So far, [with the driest conditions] confined to southwest Colorado, and nothing like the 2002 and 2012 seasons that began in the spring and affected the entire state, the conditions are ready for ignition, whether the fires are caused by nature or humans,” Mathewson said.

“It’s been busy, but it still does not rank up to our biggest ones,” he added.

The conditions could be shifting soon, Mathewson noted no June 29th. “In seven to 10 days, we hope to be talking about the first moisture pulse coming out of the southwest,” he said. “The onset of the Southwest Monsoon is the first sign that fire and drought season will start moving north.”

The National Interagency Fire Center’s July outlook also places most of western and southern Colorado in its above-normal fire risk zone for wildfire danger. “Given drier than average long-range forecasts in conjunction with a continued intensification of drought this summer in southern Colorado, and to a lesser extent western Colorado through south-central Wyoming, above normal significant large fire potential is predicted to expand from south-central and southwest Colorado through much of western Colorado into south-central Wyoming in July,” the center’s monthly outlook report said.

The conditions have also triggered Gov. Jared Polis to activate the Drought Task Force. The task force will meet weekly and use information ranging from on-the-ground reports from farmers to satellite images, to discuss actions that could be taken to aid communities experiencing effects of the drought.

On the municipal level, some cities have annual watering rules in place. In both Colorado Springs and Denver, for example, outdoor watering rules are in effect from May 1 to Oct 1 stipulating both the times of day and number of days a week you can water. Additional water restrictions could be announced depending on changing water supply conditions.