Updated Dec. 19, 2025, 6:08 p.m. MT
Corrections & Clarifications: Xcel Energy’s potential preemptive power shutoff on Dec. 19 could happen as early as 5 a.m. This story was updated to correct that time.
The worst of the wind, which in places topped 100 mph on Dec. 17, may be over but powerful wind and critical fire danger will persist in Colorado through Dec. 19, when another surge of wind arrives in the state.
Read on to get updates from Dec. 18 and 19, with the most recent updates at the top.
Looking for our coverage from Dec. 17? You can find that here.
Xcel Energy outage map shows 88,000 without power
As of 6 p.m. Dec. 19, about 88,000 Xcel Energy customers in Colorado were without power, according to an outage map.
This included 1,600 customers in the Loveland area and 1,400 customers in the Berthoud-Longmont area.
Wind conditions are expected to improve between 8 and 10 p.m., Xcel said, noting that high winds will persist beyond 10 p.m. and could cause additional outages.
Restoration activity cannot begin until weather conditions improve, an Xcel webpage providing updates said.
Check Xcel’s outage map for further updates.
— Rebecca Powell
Crews extinguish wildfire near Red Feather Lakes
Crews responded to a small grass fire on Boy Scout Ranch Road in the Red Feather Lakes area, the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office posted on X.com.
The three-quarter-acre fire was quickly contained and there were no evacuations ordered, the post said.
The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office Phantom Canyon wildland firefighters and Poudre Canyon Fire Protection District responded.
— Rebecca Powell
I-25 north of Fort Collins reopens
Interstate 25 north of Wellington is open.
The roadway from Colorado Highway 1 and Owl Canyon Road was closed from around 3:20 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. Dec. 19 for safety concerns, presumably related to wind, according to social media posts by the Colorado Department of Transportation.
— Rebecca Powell
Winds in Boulder gusting over 100 mph
Winds were gusting over 100 mph in Boulder on Dec. 19, with a gust of 113 mph reported at 2:55 p.m. at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
That’s stronger than the strongest gust of 108 mph recorded Dec. 30, 2021, the day of the Marshall Fire, and likely the strongest wind recorded at that location in more than 10 years, according to a post on X from BoulderCAST Weather, a team of local meteorologists.
— Kelly Lyell
Poudre Valley REA customers experiencing outages
While Xcel Energy isn’t experiencing any major outages in Larimer County as of 4 p.m., about 2,000 Poudre Valley REA customers are without power north of Lyons and Longmont.
Otherwise, the utility’s map shows only isolated outages west of Fort Collins and south of Greeley.
But in the areas of Lyons, Longmont and Niwot, a total of 3,000 customers are without power, according to the map.
— Rebecca Powell
Interstate 25 closed between Wellington and Owl Canyon exits
Interstate 25 was closed in both directions north of Wellington the afternoon of Dec. 19 because of safety concerns, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation.
Although the high winds blowing in the area at the time were not mentioned specifically, they would appear to be the cause of the closure of the 9-mile stretch from the Colorado Highway 1 exit north of Wellington to the Owl Canyon exit.
A traffic camera on the CDOT website showed a long line of vehicles exiting southbound I-25 at the closure at Owl Canyon Road at 3:55 p.m.
Some highways in Boulder and Jefferson counties have also been closed because of dangerous conditions caused by strong winds. They include U.S. Highway 36 between Boulder and Lyons, Colorado Highway 72 between its intersection with Colorado 7 near Allenspark to Ward and Colorado Highway 93 between Colorado Springs and Ward Road near Golden.
— Kelly Lyell
No Xcel outages in Larimer County at this time
There are no longer any major Xcel Energy outages in Larimer County, as of 3:45 p.m. Dec. 19, according to the utility’s outage map.
While parts of Loveland and Berthoud were included in Xcel’s public safety power shutoff that began at 5 a.m., those areas no longer appear to be experiencing any outages of any kind.
The map shows that across Colorado, about 6,400 customers are without power.
— Rebecca Powell
Loveland, Berthoud areas are in Xcel’s planned shutoff area
Xcel Energy’s public safety power shutoff that could begin around 5 a.m. Dec. 19 is likely to include customers in and around Loveland, according to an outage map.
The shutoff is planned due to “extreme wind and critically dry conditions that match or exceed what occurred on Wednesday,” Xcel posted in its latest update.
An earlier version of the map showing the areas flagged for the shutoff did not include Loveland. A version as of about 9:30 p.m. did.
City of Loveland Utilities provides power in much of Loveland, but Xcel has customers around the main city center.
About 87% of Loveland Utilities’ electric infrastructure is buried, according to social media posts from the utility. It gets power from Platte River Power Authority, which is not planning a shutoff.
Xcel customers in the Berthoud area are also expected to be affected by the shutoff, for the second time this week.
However, according to the outage map, Fort Collins, Timnath and Windsor will not be part of it.
Xcel said its shutoff could affect about 69,000 customers in Boulder, Clear Creek, Gilpin, Jefferson, Larimer and Weld counties.
Despite that, it’s still possible that wind damage could cause outages anywhere, Xcel says.
The utility says conditions are expected to improve around 6 p.m., but that doesn’t mean power will be turned on right away.
Crews must inspect the lines for damage before they can be reenergized, and it could take hours or days to restore power from outages.
— Rebecca Powell
Fort Collins, Timnath, Windsor area could be spared from next Xcel power shutoff
Xcel Energy is planning for another potential preemptive power shutoff on Dec. 19, but the Fort Collins-Timnath-Windsor area doesn’t appear to be part of it.
An outage map that indicates the boundaries for the areas that could be included in the planned shutoff do not include any portions of the most populated parts of Larimer County.
The only portion of Larimer County that is included is in the Berthoud area, stretching down to Longmont.
The shutoff could happen as early as 5 a.m. Dec. 19 and includes areas around Boulder and west of the Denver metro area.
— Rebecca Powell
Xcel clears most Larimer power outages
An Xcel Energy outage map shows around 30 customers in Northern Colorado without power, as of 2:45 p.m. Dec. 18.
It appears that all of the outages due to the Dec. 17 public safety power shutoff have been resolved and only isolated outages remain.
This includes west and northwest of Fort Collins, where a power pole was damaged and appears to have started a fire near CSU’s Foothills Campus. The fire was quickly extinguished.
That area was not part of Xcel’s public safety power shutoff on Dec. 17.
— Rebecca Powell
Smoke from wildfire prompts fire alarm at Bauder Elementary School
The strong smell of smoke from a wildfire burning a few miles away on Colorado State University’s Foothills Campus prompted someone to pull a fire alarm at Bauder Elementary School, leading to a brief evacuation of the school the morning of Dec. 18, Poudre School District spokesperson John Cope told the Coloradoan.
The alarm went off at 10:11 a.m., according to the PulsePoint app, and by 10:20 a.m. two PFA fire engines, two Fort Collins police vehicles, PSD Director of Student Safety Emergency Management Jared Sargent and district facilities personnel were on the scene, a Coloradoan reporter observed.
Students were gathered by class on the school’s playground as fire officials and PSD staff conducted a sweep of the building to ensure it was safe for students and staff to return.
An “all clear” announcement on the school’s intercom alerting students and staff it was safe to return to the building was given at 10:24 a.m. Students then began filing back into the building.
— Kelly Lyell
Poudre Fire Authority says no structures were damaged in wildfire near Foothills Campus
Poudre Fire Authority crews were able to quickly gain control of a wildfire Dec. 18 on Colorado State University’s Foothills Campus in northwest Fort Collins.
No injuries were reported and no structures were damaged, PFA spokesperson Annie Bierbower told a Coloradoan reporter on the scene as crews were extinguishing hot spots about 10:30 a.m. The fire burned in trees and grasses just between College Lake and the Advanced Beam Lab located the west end of Laporte Avenue.
“We’re pretty darned thankful that the wind is on our side right now,” Bierbower said.
A downed Xcel Energy transmission line was clearly visible in the burn area, adjacent to the broken wooden pole that had once supported it.
Xcel Energy crews were on the scene evaluating the situation.
The fire was first reported at 9:46 a.m., Bierbower said, and quickly upgraded to a multi-alarm fire. There were 12 PFA units and wildland firefighters with Larimer County Emergency Services on the scene.
No estimate on the fire’s acreage was immediately available.
— Kelly Lyell
Power restored at Windsor grocery stores
Power has been restored at the King Soopers (1520 Main St.) and Safeway (1535 Main St.) grocery stores in Winsdor following the Xcel power outage Dec. 17 that disrupted refrigeration at both stores, according to employees.
During the outage, workers in several departments were seen removing meat from refrigerated cases and clearing produce sections as a precaution to prevent spoilage.
Power came back on around 8 p.m. Dec. 17 at the King Soopers on Main Street, according to Noah Graham, a customer service clerk at the store.
“We put dry ice in the freezers and quickly moved meat and produce onto pallets and into a refrigerated truck,” Graham said. “An overnight crew restocked everything from the same truck.”
At the Safeway across the street, power returned around the same time, though the store did not use dry ice as part of its response, according to Devon Foster, the assistant produce manager.
“Power is back in our store, but we’re still working on restocking,” Foster told the Coloradoan around 10 a.m. Dec. 18. “We pulled everything during the day as soon as the power went out and used refrigerated trucks. It’s hard to tell when everything will be back, but we should be done in a couple of hours.”
Both stores remain open Dec. 18 for regular business hours.
— Abigail Flores-Johnson
Wildfire near Foothills Campus is out
A wildfire near CSU’s Foothills Campus has been extinguished, according to a social media post from CSU Police & Safety.
Crews are in mop-up mode.
— Rebecca Powell and Kelly Lyell
PFA responds to wildfire
Poudre Fire Authority is responding to the scene of a wildfire near the CSU Foothills Campus in west Fort Collins, according to social media posts from PFA and CSU.
PFA shared video from the scene that shows white smoke in the area.
The fire is located in the 4400 block of Laporte Avenue, which is on a stretch of road where many CSU research facilities are.
The Coloradoan has a reporter headed to the scene, and PFA says more information will be coming soon.
Based on PFA’s video, the fire looks to be on the west side of the Foothills Campus and east of Larimer County Road 23, which traverses along Horsetooth Reservoir.
— Rebecca Powell
Colorado ski areas top Colorado’s wind gusts from Dec. 17-18 windstorm
Ski areas saw wind reaching Category 3 (111 to 129 mph) hurricane force during the recent windstorm, though these were gusts compared to hurricane ratings in which the wind speed must be sustained.
According to the National Weather Service:
- 124 mph: Peak 6, Breckenridge Ski Resort
- 124 mph: Parsenn Bowl, Winter Park Resort
- 113 mph: 2 miles southwest of Breckenridge
- 110 mph: Dillon
- 103 mph: Winter Park
— Miles Blumhardt
Putting the Dec. 17-18 windstorm in perspective for Fort Collins
According to Russ Schumacher, professor in CSU’s Department of Atmospheric Science and Colorado’s state climatologist:
- Christman Field in northwest Fort Collins saw the highest city wind gust at 69.8 mph at 7:45 p.m. Dec. 17. The highest wind gust recorded at the site is 83.7 mph on Dec. 30, 2008.
- Since 1997, there have been 14 different days with a wind gust of 68 mph or greater at Christman Field, with three of those coming in the last eight days.
- The city’s official weather station on the main CSU campus recorded a top gust of 45.6 mph at 2:25 a.m. Dec. 18, marking the highest wind speed since December of 2022.
— Miles Blumhardt
Windsor, Severance middle schools, high schools following normal schedule
Weld RE-4 School District schools, which were closed because of a preemptive power shutdown by Xcel Energy, had their power back on and were operating on their normal schedules again Dec. 18, spokesperson Katie Smith told the Coloradoan in a morning email.
Only middle schools and high schools in the district that serves Windsor, Severance and west Greeley were scheduled to be in session Dec. 18-19, Smith said. Winter break for the district’s elementary school students began Dec. 18.
The district was awaiting information from Xcel Energy about another potential preemptive power shutdown Dec. 19 before making any decisions about the status of middle schools and high schools that day, their last before the winter break.
—Kelly Lyell
Here are the top wind gusts in Larimer County and Colorado, some that topped 100 mph
Here’s a look at peak wind gusts from Dec. 17, according to the National Weather Service and Colorado Climate Center:
Larimer County
- 76 mph: 3 miles east-southeast of Buckeye, near Wellington
- 70 mph: Cristman Field, northwest side of Fort Collins
- 69 mph: 3 miles east of Pinewood Springs, southeast of Estes Park
- 66 mph: 2 miles south-southwest of Laporte
- 64 mph: 2 miles west of Mishawaka, Poudre Canyon
- 64 mph: 3 miles west-northwest of Loveland
- 63 mph: Virginia Dale
- 62 mph: Red Feather Lakes
- 62 mph: 2 miles northwest of Masonville
- 61 mph: 3 miles northwest of Livermore
- 45.6 mph: Fort Collins’ official weather station on the main CSU campus.
Around Colorado
- 124 mph: Breckenridge Peak 6
- 124 mph: Parsenn Bowl, Winter Park ski area
- 113 mph: 2 miles southwest of Breckenridge
- 110 mph: Dillon
- 109 mph: National Center for Atmopsheric Research Mesa Lab, just south of Boulder
- 103 mph: Winter Park
- 102 mph: 3 miles southwest of Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge
- 95 mph: Crisman, about 3.5 miles northwest of Boulder
- 91 mph: 1 mile south of Boulder
- 78 mph: 4 miles south-southwest of Lyons
- 74 mph: Floyd Hill, west of Denver
- 73 mph: 2 miles south of Cheesman Reservoir in Douglas County
- 72 mph: 1 mile east-northeast of Berthoud Pass
- 70 mph: 2 miles south of Winter Park
- 70 mph: 4 miles north-northwest of White Ranch Open Space, northwest of Golden
— Miles Blumhardt
Poudre School District schools open other than mountain elementaries
All Poudre School District schools other than its three mountain elementaries have full power and will operate on their normal schedules Dec. 18, district spokesman John Cope told the Coloradoan in an early morning email.
Schools in Timnath had been closed Dec. 17 because of a preemptive power shutdown by Xcel Energy over concerns about high winds damaging equipment and potentially sparking wildfires. The district’s schools in Laporte and its two elementary schools in Wellington lost power later in the day because of wind damage to Xcel Energy equipment providing power to their buildings, Cope said in a series of emails.
The three mountain elementary schools — Livermore, Red Feather and Stove Prairie — will be closed Dec. 18 because of transportation concerns related to strong winds, Principal Tom Schachet wrote in an early morning email to families and staff that was shared with the Coloradoan.
— Kelly Lyell
Wind, critical fire danger continue in Colorado forecast for Dec. 18-19
According to the National Weather Service in Boulder:
Dec. 18
- Continued strong wind and critical fire weather conditions exist through the early afternoon on the Eastern Plains, where there is a red flag warning and where multiple fires are burning in the Yuma area.
- A high wind warning continues for the northern and central mountains and far Eastern Plains through noon, with wind of 35 to 50 mph, gusting to 85 mph in the mountains.
Dec. 19
- Strong downslope wind returns to the mountains, foothills and parts of the Front Range urban corridor, with widespread critical fire weather conditions anticipated under a dry and record warm air mass.
- Fire weather watch issued for the northern foothills, including Fort Collins and Larimer County, and Interstate 25 corridor late morning to late evening.
- Wind gusts 25 to 40 mph expected west of I-25 and 15 to 30 mph east of I-25 with relative humidity 10 to 15%.
— Miles Blumhardt
Fort Collins forecast calls for more wind, chance of showers through weekend
According to the National Weather Service:
- Dec. 18: Mostly sunny, with a high near 47 degrees and northwest wind 11 to 21 mph, becoming south in the afternoon and gusting to as high as 37 mph. Wind lowers at night with a low around 26.
- Dec. 19: Mostly sunny, with a high near 68 and west wind 16 to 26 mph, gusting to as high as 40 mph continuing into the evening. 40% chance of showers after 11 p.m. Low around 39.
- Dec. 20: 40% chance of showers, mainly before 11 a.m. Partly sunny, with a high near 53 and west-northwest wind 8 to 11 mph, gusting to as high as 24 mph. Low around 27.
- Dec. 21: Mostly sunny, with a high near 53 and low around 32.
— Miles Blumhardt
