{"id":16780,"date":"2025-08-25T22:50:41","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T04:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/stoner-mesa-fire-slowed-by-rains-except-where-canopies-keep-fuels-dry\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:01:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:01:22","slug":"stoner-mesa-fire-slowed-by-rains-except-where-canopies-keep-fuels-dry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/stoner-mesa-fire-slowed-by-rains-except-where-canopies-keep-fuels-dry\/","title":{"rendered":"Stoner Mesa Fire slowed by rains, except where canopies keep fuels dry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Firefighters
Firefighters work in Division X on Aug. 23. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The late arrival of monsoonal rains weakened the Stoner Mesa Fire\u2019s most vigorous flames this weekend, while dense canopies of mixed conifer have provided an umbrella to the most stubborn of flames down in the Stoner Creek drainage.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result, dry fuels under the canopy have allowed the fire to remain more active, particularly along slopes and sheltered areas,\u201d read a news release sent out by fire officials Monday morning.<\/p>\n

Additional rains are expected all week.<\/p>\n

With rainfall lingering in the area, much of the Stoner Mesa Fire \u2013 scorched at over 10,200 acres and 42% contained as of Monday \u2013 has been reduced to smoldering and creeping flames across the rugged landscape. Firefighters continue to build lines to stay on top of any spread, but the better-late-than-never monsoon provides some useful aid.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got this monsoonal high pressure system that\u2019s in place right over the Four Corners region,\u201d said Scott Stearns, incident meteorologist for the Stoner Mesa Fire during a Aug. 24 meeting at the Dolores Community Center. \u201cIt was a little bit late getting here obviously this year, but now that it\u2019s set in, that moisture is continuing to kind of move into the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

More rain is expected for the week, inviting layers of moisture to the area, with high chances Monday through Wednesday each at roughly one-fourth of an inch, according to forecasts by the National Weather Service<\/a> alongside outlooks made by Stearns.<\/p>\n

Thursday through Sunday rainfall is forecast with lower chances of rain and accompanying smaller inches of precipitation below one-tenth of an inch. Low winds and modest temperatures too are likely to bring favorable conditions for a slower fire, Stearns said.<\/p>\n

With rains, however, come greater possibility of lighting strikes, according to Stearns\u2019s forecast. Stearns said that the high chance of lightning created some concern with new flames cropping up in the area.<\/p>\n

Precipitation can pose additional cautions for firefighters.<\/p>\n

\u201cRain can make forest roads slick and unstable, so traffic on Forest Service roads has been minimized to reduce safety risks for firefighters and the public,\u201d reads Monday\u2019s press release.<\/p>\n

\"Firefighters
Firefighters work in Division X on Aug. 23. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Firefighters
Firefighters work in Division X on Aug. 23. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The moisture will not stay forever, but is likely to help, Stearns said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt some point as we get into next weekend and beyond, it looks like maybe we will dry back out,\u201d said Stearns. \u201cBut it not gonna be as dry as it was even a couple weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Air quality conditions are also anticipated to improve due to the moisture, according to a smoke outlook map from fire officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve already seen the positive effects of getting some moisture on the fire,\u201d said air resource adviser Andrew Schauer during the Aug. 23 meeting in Dolores. \u201cA lot less smoke production now than what we were seeing even three, four days ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

The southwest Colorado region is broadly forecast to have primarily Good AQI levels ranging into some periods of Moderate in the coming days.<\/p>\n

County Road 38 between Colorado Highway 145 and Dunton will likely remain at Good levels, while Colorado 145 north of Stoner toward Rico may have periods of \u201cmoderate\u201d quality with and average of \u201cgood\u201d quality.<\/p>\n

The Stoner area down to Colorado 145, however, will likely remain the most impacted, receiving \u201cunhealthy\u201d levels morning and nights while reaching to \u201cgood\u201d during the day.<\/p>\n

Air quality index levels in Dolores are unlikely to surpass \u201cmoderate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

expected to continue through the week before tapering off<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16780"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20387,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16780\/revisions\/20387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16780"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}