This afternoon Denver is in the eye of the storms — three of them, to be exact.
Northeast Colorado is under a flood warning, a wide swath south, east and west of the metro region, including Granby, Aspen to the Kansas and Oklahoma state lines, is under a critical “red flag” fire danger warning.
And seven counties in north-central and northeast Colorado are under a severe thunderstorm watch until 9 p.m.: Larimer, Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington and Weld counties.
Dry fuel, low humidity, high temperatures and gusty winds will make fires a real threat until 8 p.m. for much of the state.
The red flag warning includes Berthoud Pass, Breckenridge, east slopes in Mosquito Range, east slopes of the southern Gore Range, the Eisenhower Tunnel area, Indian Peaks, Kenosha mountains, Mount Evans, Tarryall mountains, Williams Fork mountains, Winter Park, Elevenmile Reservoir, Fairplay, Hartsel, Lake George, Bailey, Central City, Evergreen, Georgetown, Idaho Springs, northern Rampart Range, Castle Rock, Kiowa, Larkspur, Hugo, Limo and Punkin Center.
While much of the high country had record or near-record snowpacks this winter, much of southern Colorado was below-average. Along with a cooler-than-normal May, spring was late in arriving and left many areas primed for wildfires.
The state has lost more than 60,000 acres to fires in the last two weeks, including some blazes that continued to burn today.
The Duckett fire has burned about 3,000 acres in Custer and Fremont counties since Sunday, prompting evacuations.
I-25 at the New Mexico state line reopened today after the Track fire, which has burned 25,000 acres and 14 buildings since Sunday, no longer was a threat to visibility on the highway.
Updates on containment and acreage were not available this afternoon from the U.S. Forest Service or other agencies battling the blaze.
Media phones lines said updates would be posted at , but the website has been down most of the afternoon.
