Heavy Rain, Flash Flood Watch for Fort Collins, Loveland on Thursday

Fort Collins and Loveland are in a Flash Flood Watch, with heavy rain expected Thursday afternoon until midnight, the National Weather Service is reporting. 

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Most of the entire Front Range, including Denver, has the watch in effect, however Northern Colorado is mostly affected west of the I-25 corridor (map below). Thunderstorms and showers are in the Fort Collins forecast starting at 1 p.m., continuing until midnight.

The National Weather Service tweeted that 'slow moving thunderstorms are likely to produce heavy rain today,' including the Cameron Peak Fire burn area. Travelers should take caution near the Red Feather Lakes and Pingree Park areas.

In 2020, Larimer County was heavily burned by Colorado's two largest wildfires, Cameron Peak Fire, west of Fort Collins, and East Troublesome Fire, near Estes Park.

Cameron Peak Fire started in August of 2020, and burned for 111 days before reaching 100 percent containment. Over 5,600 firefighters battled the blaze which destroyed over 200,000 acres. The cause is still unknown.

The East Troublesome Fire, which started in October of 2020, is Colorado's second-largest wildfire in history, and it burned simultaneously with the Cameron Peak Fire. East Troublesome destroyed nearly 200,000 acres, and a portion of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Similarly, because of burn scars from the Grizzly Creek Fire, rainfall caused a massive mudslide on I-70 near Glenwood Springs. That fire only burned 32,000 acres, compared to the other two fires' combined 400,000 acres. Because of the severity of the mudslide, the interstate closed multiple times in both directions.