Heat is on: Colorado girds for flooding
Here it comes.
This week's blast of statewide warm weather will kick-start a deluge of melting snowpack that will likely cause some minor flooding.
Monday morning, the National Weather Service issued a flood watch for the East River near Almont, the Green River in Uintah County and the Yampa River in Moffat County. Isolated flooding was reported on the Rio San Antonio near Manassa, and a creeping landslide along Archuleta County's East Fork of the San Juan River was threatening a gas line.
The Elk River north of Steamboat Springs is expected to reach flood stage this week. And a record snowfall above Aspen is raising flood concerns along the Roaring Fork River, which has yet to begin surging with any whitewater.
"I think with these next four, five, six days of really warm weather, things are going to start to bust loose," said Tom Ley, chief hydrographer for Colorado's Division of Water Resources.
