For the second time this week, Colorado’s Front Range is bracing for wind gusts so strong Friday that Xcel Energy has disrupted households, businesses and schools by shutting off the power to hundreds of thousands of customers to prevent wildfires amid extreme fire danger.
The wind gusts — anticipated to reach speeds up to and exceeding 100 mph throughout the day — led federal meteorologists to issue a rare “particularly dangerous situation” red flag warning for the foothills on Friday.
So how do those speeds compare to some of Colorado’s windiest days in history?
The National Weather Service in Boulder doesn’t keep a list of the state’s biggest wind events, but agency meteorologist Kenley Bonner confirmed Colorado’s strongest wind gust on record clocked in at a whopping 148 mph on Feb. 18, 2016, on Monarch Pass.
Comparatively, on Wednesday, when high winds battered the foothills and northern Colorado, a 124 mph gust whooshed over the summit of Breckenridge Ski Resort’s Peak 6 around 9 p.m., according to NWS data.
So far on Friday, the NWS has reported a 105 mph gust at the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s Mesa Laboratory in Boulder, and data submitted to the weather service shows several other blasts over 100 mph in Boulder County.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder has “some of the highest peak winds of any city in the U.S.”
And NCAR’s lab, which overlooks south Boulder, has historically been buffeted by some of the highest winds. (The Trump administration this week revealed plans to shut down and dismantle NCAR, a global leader in climate and Earth systems research. Some Colorado elected officials have characterized the move as retaliation against the state.)
Here’s a sampling of notably huge Colorado wind gusts
148 mph: Monarch Pass on Feb. 18, 2016
147 mph: NCAR’s Mesa Lab on Jan. 23, 1971
143 mph: North Boulder on Jan. 24, 1992
137 mph: NCAR’s Mesa Lab on Jan. 16-17, 1982
130 mph: NCAR’s Mesa Lab on Jan. 7-8, 1969
124 mph: Breckenridge’s Peak 6 on Dec. 17, 2025
115 mph: Arvada on Dec. 30, 2021
Source: NWS and NOAA data
The conditions Friday are reminiscent of the high winds and dry temperatures that drove the rapid spread of the Marshall fire on Dec. 30, 2021, in Boulder County. It remains the state’s most catastrophic wildfire, having destroyed more than 1,000 homes.
Though the highest wind gust recorded that day was in Arvada, NOAA data also shows a 110 mph gust at Rocky Flats, a 108 mph gust in southwest Boulder and a 103 mph gust at the White Ranch Open Space in Jefferson County.
Xcel Energy agreed to a $640 million settlement in September on the eve of a court trial to determine the utility’s responsibility in the catastrophic Marshall fire. The company did not admit any fault, wrongdoing or negligence in connection with the settlement.
Boulder County sheriff’s investigators and the district attorney’s office determined over the course of a 17-month investigation that the Marshall fire started on the grounds of an international religious cult and from a broken Xcel power line about 2,000 feet away.
Front Range residents should “be ready to take swift action” due to critical fire conditions along the Interstate 25 corridor, forecasters said Friday.
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