Guide
Cold snaps and mountain winds in Fort Collins
Fort Collins winters swing. A mild, breezy afternoon can turn into a hard freeze by morning, and furnaces feel every change.
January by the numbers
Normals cover 1991–2020. Source: Colorado Climate Center, Fort Collins Weather Station Monthly Summary, January 2025.
Winds off the mountains
The National Weather Service office in Boulder describes chinooks as warm, dry winds plowing down the eastern slopes, with upper-level winds much stronger in winter than in summer. Its cousin, the bora, comes down the same slopes behind a strong cold air mass and can bring dangerously low wind chill.
The same NWS page names Fort Collins among the foothill areas where winds of 60 to near 100 mph occur. For a house, that means drifting snow against side-wall vent pipes and, now and then, downed power lines. A gas furnace still needs electricity for its igniter, inducer and blower, so a power cut stops the heat too. Stay well away from any line on the ground.
Source: National Weather Service Boulder, high wind information.
Ahead of the freeze
- Swap in a new filter.
- Clear snow and ice from the intake and exhaust pipes outside.
- Run the heat a day ahead by raising the setpoint, so a fault shows while it is still mild.
- Find the furnace power switch and the gas shutoff, and make sure everyone at home knows them too.
- Check that carbon monoxide alarms have working batteries.
If the heat quits during the cold
Run through the no-heat checks, then call. While you wait, close off unused rooms and keep doors shut to hold warmth where people are. Never heat the house with a gas oven, a grill or a generator indoors; all of them make carbon monoxide.
Cold house? Make the call.
Describe the symptoms and give your street. A heating and cooling business that covers the Fort Collins area, independent of this website, handles everything after that.