Many Northern Colorado residents could see their power shut off Friday morning as Xcel Energy prepares for another round of dangerous fire weather in parts of Larimer and Weld counties. The state’s largest energy provider announced its plan to cut power Tuesday morning.
“If a [power shutoff] is required, Xcel Energy expects the number of impacted customers to be substantially less than the number impacted by the December 2025 [power shutoffs] in the Denver and Boulder areas,” the utility said in a statement, referring to widespread shut-offs Dec. 17-19. “The company’s goal is to limit impacts as much as possible while effectively managing high wildfire risk.”
In December, approximately 115,000 customers were impacted by the public safety power shutdown across the Front Range. The scale and duration of those outages prompted criticism from state and local leaders, including Gov. Jared Polis, who has since called for clearer timelines and faster restoration when shutoffs are used as a preventative measure.
In an interview with CPR News this week, Polis said residents should not be left without electricity for four or five days because of “an optional shutoff.”
“I think accurate maps and timing for any cutoffs, as well as estimates for when power restoration will occur, is key,” Polis said. “If there's actually a pole knocked down and people have to go out and fix it, that can happen in windstorms. But when there's an elective choice by the utility to do this because of fire risk, they need to make sure the power is restored quickly and that people have to know when they can live in their own home.”
The National Weather Service has issued a fire weather watch beginning Thursday morning for several counties along the northern foothills and east of Denver, including Larimer, Weld, Morgan, Adams and Arapahoe counties. While no fire weather warnings have been issued yet for Friday, forecasters have posted a high wind watch, with sustained winds around 45 mph and gusts that could reach 60 mph.
“As the winds get around that 60 mph and above, it can start to snap power poles and push them over,” Abby Pettett, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said. “That's why [Xcel] shuts the power off because whenever those go down, if the wires are still live, they can cause sparks and they can catch things on fire.”
Unseasonably warm weather and low precipitation has exacerbated fire risk across the state. December broke records as the warmest ever, according to a report released Monday by the Colorado Climate Center, which called it “disturbingly warm.”
Pettett said conditions should improve this weekend. While Saturday may still be breezy, winds are not expected to reach high-wind warning criteria, and a chance for additional moisture could help raise humidity levels above critical fire thresholds. For now, she said, Thursday and Friday appear to be the most concerning days, though the forecast could still change.
