Boulder County is under a red flag warning on Tuesday for elevations under 6,000 feet as the National Weather Service is warning of critical fire weather.
The warning is in effect from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, according to NWS. Critical fire weather warnings mean unusually high temperatures, low humidity and wind.
Winds are expected to persist between 15 and 25 mph, with gusts reaching 55 mph. Relative humidity will reach as low as 11%, according to NWS.
Open burning and agricultural burning is prohibited under Stage 1 burn restrictions across Boulder County on Tuesday, according to the Boulder County Sheriff’s office.
There have been two wildfires in the past two weeks in Boulder County.
A grass wildfire burned 35 acres Monday in a field southwest of the U.S. 287 and Northwest Parkway interchange in the southeastern corner of Boulder. A preliminary investigation indicates that the fire started when a combine sparked while working in a cornfield, spreading to a haystack.
The fire prompted area evacuations, closed U.S. 287 and was contained to a haystack after its smoke was visible as far as Longmont.
Another wildfire burned about three acres in Fourmile Canyon west of Boulder, only two days before Christmas. That fire, which sparked near Wild Turkey Trail, flared up amid an unusually warm day for December in Boulder County.