Hotter weather increases flood threat in northern Colorado

(Photo: Courtesy of Ethan Marlatt)The National Weather Service is continuing a flood warning for Weld County and a flood advisory for other parts of northern Colorado.

Rising temperatures are adding to the threat posed by recent rain. Above-average mountain snowpack could melt too quickly and cause flooding in Boulder, Larimer and Weld counties.

Weld County emergency management director Roy Rudisell is closely monitoring the Cache de Poudre and Platter Rivers. Rudisell says his biggest fears are a heavy rainstorm or warmer weather causing the above-average snowpack to melt too quickly.

"I think the best-case scenario is that we maintain some cooler weather in the mountains, and we don’t get the heavy thunderstorms we had last week and then those river flows will maintain at the levels they are," Rudisill says.

Meanwhile, officials in Boulder County say they’ve given away 40,000 sandbags to residents along waterways.

Officials in all three counties have done what they could to remove debris and sediment that filled waterways during last September's massive flooding across the Front Range.