The entire Interstate 25 corridor along the Front Range of Colorado faces a red flag warning Wednesday from the National Weather Service as its offices warn of high fire danger and damaging winds.

The entire southeastern part of the state, to the borders of New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas, is covered by the red flag warning. El Paso County is forecast to have 20-30 mph winds with gusts up to 55 mph and relative humidity as low as 12 percent. A high temperature of 64 is expected in Colorado Springs.

A high wind warning is also set to take effect at 2 p.m. Wednesday and last through 3 a.m. Thursday for several counties in the Pikes Peak region, including El Paso, Pueblo, Teller and parts of Fremont.

So far, Hanover D-28 is the first school district in El Paso County to shut its doors early on Wednesday starting at noon. Further north, several school districts have closed, including every public school in Jefferson County.

On Tuesday, Colorado set a record with a high temperature of 68, breaking the old mark of 67 from 1952. A new record was also set in Pueblo, which reached 72 to break the mark of 70 from 1939.

“When fuels are dry and critical, with the combined conditions of low humidity and strong winds, that’s when conditions become volatile to extreme fire behavior,” Weather Service Meteorologist Cameron Simcoe, based in Pueblo, told The Gazette.

High winds could restrict certain roadways for semitrailers and light-weight vehicles if they reach over 60 mph, according to a news release by the Colorado Department of Transportation.

Simcoe described the Weather Service red flag warning as “pretty standard” for the area even well into December. He advised those impacted to be prepared and to watch for alerts from local officials.

Winds are forecast to be stronger along the northern half of the Front Range, with winds of 30-50 mph and gusts up to 80 mph, according to the red flag warning issued by the Weather Service in Boulder.

This year is the fourth since 2010 to have more than one red flag warning issued in December by the Pueblo office, according to Weather Service data. The majority of those December warnings, 17, occurred in 2021 and 2022.

The Colorado Springs Fire Department is advising those under a red flag warning to be diligent and aware of the fire risk, a spokesperson from the department told The Gazette. To prepare, the Fire Department suggests having a go-kit, being ready to evacuate if needed and signing up for Peak Alerts.

One utility company, Xcel Energy, is taking steps to proactively cut power to prevent a similar ignition of the Marshall fire in 2021, which killed two, destroyed more than 1,000 homes and left $2 billion in damages in what was the state’s most devastating in history. It was caused by both an unmoored Xcel power line and the reignition of a fire covered by dirt.

Xcel serves much of the Denver metro area along with several other parts of Colorado.

A spokesperson with Colorado Springs Utilities told The Gazette it does not have a “formal public safety power shutoff policy.” The company will have crews on standby Wednesday to make any necessary repairs to its majority underground distribution system.

Black Hills Energy, a utilities provider for several southern Colorado municipalities including Fountain, Monument, Woodland Park, Pueblo and Cañon City, will monitor weather conditions and pause certain work tasks until the fire risk improves, according to a news release by the company on Tuesday.

Conditions across southeastern Colorado have become drier in recent months, the latest U.S. Drought Monitor update shows.

Costilla, Huerfano and Otero counties are the only southeastern Colorado counties with a majority of their land area in a dry or drought status. All of Huerfano County has been classified as abnormally dry or in moderate drought since the monitor’s first November forecast.

Meanwhile, El Paso and Pueblo counties have less than 5% of their land areas designated as abnormally dry, the lowest criteria.

Record-breaking and record-tying high temperatures were reached in Colorado Springs and Pueblo on Monday and Tuesday, according to Weather Service data. Neither city has recorded precipitation since Dec. 3, when both exceeded their monthly averages.