The National Weather Service in Pueblo issued a red flag warning for several areas in southeast Colorado on Tuesday due to forecasted low humidity amid a record low snowpack.

The warning, in effect from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., was issued to Fremont, Pueblo and Teller counties as well as portions of Huerfano County and the Rampart Range, including Pikes Peak.

Wind gusts were anticipated to reach 40 mph with humidity as low as 8 percent, according to forecasts. The weather service’s Storm Prediction Center also issued an elevated fire risk for the area, its lowest risk criteria.

The weather service in Pueblo has issued five red flag warnings and three fire watches so far this year, according to data from the agency. The office has not issued multiple red flag warnings in the first 19 days of a new year since 2009, the first year with available records.

The only affected areas currently with fire restrictions are the Rampart Range area in El Paso County, which has Stage 1 restrictions in effect county-wide, according to the sheriff’s office website.

Light snowfall over some parts of the Pikes Peak Region on Sunday did not add much to an unusually low snow pack. The official measurement for Colorado Springs did not record any precipitation, while some reports in the city recorded trace amounts of snow up to 0.3 inches.

Trained spotters near Monument and Palmer Lake reported 1 and 0.6 inches of snow to the weather service, respectively.

Data from the USDA’s National Water and Climate Center for Jan. 19 shows Colorado’s snowpack at around one-tenth of an inch of “snow water equivalent” below the record minimum, a level the agency has tracked annually since 1987. 

Chances for widespread snowfall return to the forecast on Friday and Saturday, with around a 30 percent chance of precipitation in the Pikes Peak Region.