The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for western Colorado on Tuesday, citing the increased fire risk because of high temperatures, gusty winds and a chance of lightning.
The warning lasts until 8 p.m. Tuesday and includes Cortez, Mancos and southeast Utah.
The forecast through Thursday includes a 30-40 percent chance of rain on Tuesday through Thursday.
The forecast calls for partly sunny skies, a high temperature near 84 and over lows of about 55.
For Thursday, the forecast calls for partly sunny skies and even cooler temperatures. The high is expected to be about 80 degrees, and the overnight low, about 53 degrees.
Rain would provide a welcome break from last week’s record hot days, including Monday’s high of 101.2 degrees, which was just .8 degree off the all-time high of 102.
And for the month of June so far, Cortez has received just .11 inch of precipitation, about 28 percent of normal. By comparison, Cortez received 2.33 inches of precipitation last June, about 585 percent of normal. Normal in Cortez is about .40 inch.
Cortez is now in a neutral weather pattern, according to local weather watcher Jim Andrus, and heading toward a La Niña pattern, which typically brings a dry, warm winter.
