Cold and wet weather early this week likely will help firefighters battling a grass fire on Fort Carson’s southern reaches while also bringing moisture back to the dry Front Range.

The blaze, a few miles from Turkey Creek Recreation Area, started during training exercises Saturday night and spread to 1,200 acres. By Sunday, the fire had not grown and crews from the base, Colorado Springs, Fountain and rural areas had it 65 percent contained. While two Chinook helicopters dumped water on the fire Sunday, more humidity also helped to dampen flames, Fort Carson spokeswoman Dani Johnson said.

The slight change in weather Sunday presaged a storm that will hit Colorado Springs on Monday night, dropping temperatures and bringing rain and maybe snow, according to forecasts from the National Weather Service in Pueblo.

“We are not overly excited about snow amounts,” said Makoto Moore, a meteorologist with the weather service. “We are just excited that we are going to get some moisture.”

The past week brought record-high temperatures to the Front Range, and fire warnings for some areas. So if Colorado Springs residents get the feeling that February has been warmer than average, they are right. The month’s average temperature has been 49.2 degrees, up from the typical 44.8 degrees, said Peggy Perales, also a meteorologist with the weather service. “But that will change because we’ve still got a week to go,” she added.

While the start of February brought heavy snowfall to the Springs – 10-plus inches in town and even more to the northwest – weeks of warm weather seem to have eliminated nearly all traces. Nonetheless, the snowfall this month is still nearly 5 inches above the monthly average, Perales said.

Monday’s high temperatures will be around 50 degrees, but when the storm moves in the temperatures will plunge and Tuesday could be 20 degrees cooler, Moore said. Rain likely will fall in the Springs and snow will hit the higher elevations, he added.

“Just a little reminder that winter is still here,” Moore said.

Temperatures should return to the 50s by the end of the week.

It won’t snow nearly as much as the storm that blanketed the Pikes Peak region with some 2 feet earlier this month, but the warm stretch of weather since then will come to an abrupt end, starting late Monday.