Denver will enter the second week in May with Mother Nature’s oven door slightly ajar.
The high temperature on Sunday is expected to reach into the mid-80s, according to the National Weather Service. That comes after the temperature today tiptoed up to an all-time high for the date, before turning back just one degree short at 86 degrees.
The average high for May 7 in 67 degrees.
Temperatures are expected to dip down into the 60s by mid-week before warming up.
And it could be awhile before rain re-visits the city.
“Maybe Wednesday,” said the National Weather Service’s Byron Louis. “That looks like the next chance that we might see something. But that’s fairly low probability.”
Red flag warnings, indicators of high fire danger, blanketed the southern and western parts of the state today and will likely return in those areas tomorrow, Louis said.
Meanwhile, the warm-up creates other worries.
The Colorado Avalanche Information Center this week warned backcountry travelers to be wary of slides from unstable, melting snow. Ethan Greene, the center’s director, said today he hadn’t heard of any fresh avalanches but said the risk remains.
Snowmelt also threatens to engorge mountain streams and rivers. Louis said he hadn’t heard of any flooding concerns today. But the Colorado Water Conservation Board cautioned this week in its “flood threat outlook” that predicted warmer-than-average temperatures over the next several days are “something to be leery about.”
John Ingold: 303-954-1068 or jingold@denverpost.com.
