Colorado
Sam Vines close to finalizing return to Colorado Rapids, club sources say
After two-and-a-half seasons with Belgian Pro League side Royal Antwerp F.C., Colorado Springs native Sam Vines is nearing a deal to return to the Colorado Rapids, club sources told The Denver Post.
Over the next 48-72 hours, Vines is expected to fly back to Colorado and complete a medical exam before finalizing the deal, sources said. Upon completion of the deal, Vines will be the third U.S. Men’s National Team player the Rapids have signed in the January transfer window.
The 24-year old left back joined the Rapids Academy at age 13 before signing a Homegrown deal with the club at age 18. Since his MLS debut on Oct. 21, 2018, he’s never looked back.
In MLS, he started 49 of his 53 matches played, tallying two goals and four assists before being transferred to Antwerp early in 2021. His best year in Colorado was 2020, where he scored a goal and assisted three others. That season, he was the only Rapids player to play every single minute.
In February of 2020, Vines became the first Rapids Academy product to start a match for the USMNT in a friendly against Costa Rica, which the U.S. won 1-0. A year later, he became the first Rapids Academy product to be named to the USMNT for a senior international tournament (CONCACAF Gold Cup).
In total, he has nine caps for the national team and has recorded one goal and one assist.
During the 2021 Gold Cup, which the U.S. won, Vines was transferred to Antwerp of the Belgian Pro League. During his tenure there, he appeared in 38 matches, starting 34 of them. He tallied two goals and an assist.
In the 2022-23 season, Vines started all 15 of the matches he played on the way to helping Antwerp win the Belgian Pro League championship. The club’s third-place finish in the regular season earned it a spot in the UEFA Champions League this year.
Due to a clerical error that could not be fixed, Vines was mistakenly left off Antwerp’s Champions League roster, meaning he would miss out on the group stage of the competition. Antwerp’s group included Spanish La Liga’s FC Barcelona, Portuguese Primiera Liga’s FC Porto and Ukrainian Premier League’s Shakhtar Donetsk.
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Colorado
Dangerous fire situation looming for parts of Colorado’s Front Range, as another day of strong winds lies ahead
Dangerous weather conditions in Colorado are expected to team up for a surge in the Front Range fire danger. For most of the day Friday conditions will be favorable for rapid fire spread. Avoid outdoor burning and any activity that may produce a spark. Friday will be a First Alert Weather Day.
The triple threat of hurricane force winds, record heat and single digit relative humidity will all be in force from 10 a.m. to midnight on Friday. That is when a red flag warning for high fire danger is issued.
For the first time in Colorado, the National Weather Service office in Boulder has issued an extra warning know as “A Particularly Dangerous Situation” for northwest Jefferson and western Boulder counties for possible wind gusts of 85 to 105 mph.
The worst areas will be from Highway 93 up into the higher foothills. That, combined with single digit relative humidity, will make conditions worse that what the state experienced on Wednesday.
For the northern Front Range, the strongest winds will be west of I-25 into the foothills. Along and east of the I-25 corridor including the Denver metro area, winds may gust up to 40 mph with humidity levels as low as 8%. For that reason, the entire Denver metro area is in the warning area.
The strong winds will be warming downslope winds for eastern Colorado with highs on Friday shooting up into the 60s and 70s. Denver may have a new record high of 70 degrees. The old record is 67 degrees last set in 2023.
Top wind gusts may likely be stronger than Wednesday. Those gusts were hurricane force in some areas of the foothills and mountains with gusty winds comparable to those of a category 2 or 3 hurricane.
DENVER (KDVR) — Strong wind gusts at the speed of a Category 3 hurricane swept through two Colorado counties on Wednesday.
Strong winds blew through the state on Wednesday, leaving tens of thousands without power, causing safety road closures and recording wind gusts reaching over 100 mph. In some areas, winds were even higher, with Summit and Grand counties seeing 124 mph wind gusts.
At 9 p.m. on Wednesday, one weather station on top of Breckenridge Peak 6 picked up a wind gust of 124 mph in Summit County. Then, at 9:52 p.m., another weather station at Parsenn Bowl Summit in Grand County picked up a wind gust of 124 mph, according to National Weather Service records.
These two wind gusts weren’t only the strongest gusts on Wednesday, they were so strong that they were comparable to the strength of a devastating hurricane.
The Pinpoint Weather team said it was the strength of a high-end Category 3 hurricane. These winds also compare to a high-end EF2 tornado, which could damage one or two family residences, according to NWS.
These weren’t the only areas that saw high winds. Several counties across Colorado saw winds higher than 100 mph throughout Wednesday.
The Pinpoint Weather team expects the wind to continue into Friday with continued fire danger. The winds are expected to slow down throughout the weekend.
Some students at Colorado schools won’t be going to school on Thursday. That’s after strong winds on Wednesday on the Front Range and in the foothills caused power outages.
More than 100,000 customers were without power late in the day on Wednesday.
The closed schools include all of the Boulder Valley School District and 25 schools in Jeffco Public Schools. Schools in Gilpin County and Clear Creek County are also going to be closed.
See the full list of school closings.
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