The metro area could flirt with triple-digit heat for the first time this year Wednesday, as an encore to a high of 96 today.
The forecast for Denver calls for a high of 98 degrees tomorrow, four degrees short of the record of 102 set in 1990. The normal temperature is 86 degrees, according to weather data.
Thursday is expected to see 95 degrees, before temperatures drop to a more seasonable 88 degrees Friday, according the metro area forecast.
Temperatures are expected to linger into the mid-80s and early 90s into next week.
Each day has a 10 percent chance of thunderstorms.
Winds are expected to pick up across the Front Range Wednesday, which should push out ground-level ozone.
Smoke from the Maxwell fire near Lefthand Canyon in Boulder County could cause “light to heavily local smoke” in the area, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
Smoke from fires in New Mexico also could pump haze into southern Colorado Wednesday, the department stated.
The heat is rapidly draining the remaining snowpack in the high country, meaning rivers will continue to run high and fast for the next few days as temperatures above 9,000 feet climb into the 70s Wednesday.
A flood advisory remains in effect for the Colorado River near Granby and Kremmling, the Cache La Poudre River above Fort Collins and near Greeley and Williams Fork river below Williams Fork Reservoir near Parshall.
Colorado appears to have avoid major flooding despite the record and near-record snowpacks across northwest Colorado, thanks to cycles of warmer and cooler temperatures over the past few weeks, according to the Weather Service.
“Fortunately most of the snowpack in the mountains below 10,000 feet has already melted off,” the Weather Service stated.
Severe heat and high winds also are producing wildfires across the state. The state has lost more than 29,000 acres to wildfires this month, compared to 41,000 acres in all of 2009, according to state and federal fire databases. Figures for 2010 were not yet available
A critical “red flag” fire danger warning is in effect from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday for the mountains southwest of Denver, including Park County.
The warning also includes the San Luis Valley. the Sangre de Cristo, the Wet Mountains and Wet Mountain Valley, as well s Lake, Chaffee, Fremont, Teller, northern El Paso, Huerfano, Las Animas and Baca counties.
