MARSHALL FIRE: 991 HOMES DESTROYED, 2 MISSING AND PRESUMED DEAD

Boulder authorities Saturday confirmed the 100-mph-wind-driven Marshall Fire destroyed 991 homes and damaged 127 more, making it Colorado's most destructive fire, in terms of the number of homes burned. Two people, one, a woman in Superior, and a man in unincorporated Boulder County were missing and presumed dead. Of the homes lost, 553 are in Louisville, 332 are in Superior and 102 are in unincorporated Boulder County. Of those damaged, 45 are in Louisville, 60 are in Superior and 22 are in unincorporated Boulder. Those figures are still not final, officials said.

HOME PRICES WILL CONTINUE TO APPRECIATE IN DENVER, COLORADO

Seattle-based real estate firm Zillow projects Denver will have a record-setting 22.1 percent gain in home prices when all figures are in for 2021. Although the price increase growth slowed to 1.3 percent per month at the end of 2021, Zillow is calling for a 17.5 percent gain in metro Denver home prices for 2022. Projections for mountain areas are even higher than Denver, with Breckenridge at 29.4 percent; Edwards up 25.8 percent; Steamboat Springs up 23.4 percent; and Durango 22.1 percent higher. Nationally, Zillow forecasts a price gain of 14.3 percent, which compares with 19.3 percent through November of 2021.

DIA WILL HAVE MORE FLIGHTS TO EUROPE THAN IT DID PRE-PANDEMIC

Denver International Airport will have flights to more than 20 international destinations in 2022 and it will increase the number of flights to Europe in 2022. DIA will have 23 percent more flights to Europe this summer than it did in 2019. United Airlines will launch a daily flight from DIA to Munich this spring, and double the number of flights to London in March. United also flies to Frankfurt, Germany. In 2021, Air France began flights from DIA to Paris. Edelweiss Air is expected to resume flights to Zurich in June.

FLIGHT CANCELLATIONS GREET NEW YEAR'S TRAVELERS

The first two days of the new year brought massive travel issues as winter weather combined with the pandemic to delay or strand travelers seeking to return home after the Christmas holiday. On Saturday, there were 2,700 U.S. flights and more than 4,700 flights worldwide that were cancelled. On Sunday, more than 2,600 U.S. flights and more than 4,400 flights worldwide were cancelled. A winter storm blew across the Midwest forcing the cancellation of about a quarter of all the flights at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Southwest Airlines canceled about 11 percent of its flights Sunday.

HALF A BILLION IN DECEMBER SALES PUSH PITCO'S REAL ESTATE SALES TO NEW RECORD

According to the Aspen Times, there was $586.1 million in real estate sales recorded in Pitkin County in December. Those sales pushed the dollar volume of all real estate transactions in the county, including commercial, residential, vacant land, and hotel fractionals, to $4.6 billion, a new record. Through November 2021, the average sale price for a single-family home in Aspen for the year was $11.8 million, according to the Aspen Board of Realtors. The median price for 11 months was $9.6 million. In 2021, there were six transactions in the county that topped $35 million.

GJ'S LEITNER POMA LOOKS TOWARD RECORD YEAR

The U.S. ski industry suffered from the shutdown of operations due to the pandemic and resorts canceled any capital projects. However, once the resorts reopened they had the fifth busiest season ever in 2020-21. As a result, U.S. ski areas ramped up expansion programs and replacement of lifts. Vail Resorts alone plans to add 21 new chairlifts at 14 resorts for the 2022-23 season. Grand Junction-based Leitner Poma is ready for a very busy year. Leitner, along with Austria's Doppelmayr, project there will be $300 million in new lifts installed at U.S. ski areas in 2022. Leitner Poma is part of Italy’s High Technologies Industries Group, which includes the Leitner and Poma lift makers in Europe, as well as Prinoth snow groomers, Demaclenko snowmaking systems and Leitwind wind turbines.

THE MARSHALL FIRE: COLORADO'S NEW WILDFIRE REALITY

The Marshall Fire has forced officials and residents across Colorado to reassess their thinking about wildfire. The wind-driven fire covered 6,000 acres within hours and still was not fully contained after up to 10 inches of snow covered the area. Colorado and Coloradans must now seriously reconsider: the definition of fire "season"; the wildland-urban interface; and, climate change. The most dramatic factor of the Marshal Fire, aside from its devastation, was that fire no longer needs a forest to flourish. Nor does it occur only in the summer. After extended periods of drought, wildfire can be an every-day-of-the-year event.
Wildfire is no longer only an element of forested areas or the so-called wildland-urban interface. As Gov. Jared Polis said, "This (the Marshall Fire) was fundamentally an urban and suburban fire." Instead of relying on trees, brush and grasses as a fuel base, the Marshall Fire was a "firestorm." It moved through the air, with the strong winds fanning embers across a wide region in mere seconds. The fire started in open space, but it spread across suburban areas of pavement and shopping centers, eventually forcing the evacuation of people in Louisville, after crossing U.S. Hwy. 36, miles away.

COLORADO OIL AND GAS COMPANIES RANKED BY 2020 REVENUE

Data was compiled from annual SEC filings and Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission information:

• DCP Mainstream LP: $6.3 billion
• Ovintiv Inc: $6.08 billion
• Antero Resources Corp.: $3.49 billion
• Climarex Energy: $1.55 billion
• PDC Energy Inc.: $1.33 billion
• SM Energy Co.: $1.12 billion
• Whiting Petroleum Corp.: $773.9 million
• QEP Resources Inc.: $724.4 million
• Centennial Resource Development Inc.: $580.4 million
• Extraction Oil & Gas Inc.: $557.9 million