Record-breaking March heat wave rolling into Colorado after St. Patty's Day; get ready for highs in the 80s

Our March madness this year comes with a record-breaking Colorado heat wave that will send top temperatures near and above 80 degrees by the middle of the week. The strong heat surge will develop as an intense ridge of high pressure rolls into the Rockies from St. Patrick's Day on into the start of the weekend ahead.

St. Patrick's Day will start the warmup with highs rising nearly 20 degrees above normal for the month of March. With mostly sunny skies, lots of 70 degree highs will be dotting the Eastern Plains for Tuesday.  

In parts of northern and northeastern Colorado there will be elevated fire danger on Tuesday -- from Fort Collins out to the Nebraska and Kansas state lines. There is a red flag warning posted for these areas from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on St. Patrick's Day with wind gusts up to 45 mph and humidity levels down to 16%.

From Wednesday on, the real heat wave begins to take a foothold with highs for many areas getting up into the 80s to finish the week. The hottest high ever recorded for Denver in the month of March is 84 degrees set in 1971.

It is now looking like Colorado needs to brace for multiple days of historic heat on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

There is a cool-down coming in by the time we make it to Sunday, but, with heat like this expected for several days the fire danger and drought situation for our region will continue to get worse and worse.