The northeastern corner of Colorado has a higher risk of tornadoes today than recent thunderstorm days. This risk is up to 5% from near Sterling toward North Platte, NE. 5% may not sound like much, but it is a significant chance when discussing tornadoes.

What does this mean for Denver? Today, we are hot and windy and in dangerous fire conditions should one ignite. Tomorrow, we cool off for the week.

This alert map for Colorado includes quite a bit related to heat and wind. We may see thunderstorm-related alerts later in the day, but this is what has been issued as of 8 a.m.

What's a red flag warning? These are issued when conditions will be favorable for rapid fire spread. Avoid outdoor burning and any activity that may produce a   spark and start a wildfire.

In this heat, we need rain, and chances increase in the coming days, but it's a small coverage of moisture. Today has a slight chance of a storm, and that chance increases Tuesday. By Wednesday, we have additional chances to catch some rain.

For the next three days, here is the hourly breakdown of Denver's chances for rain and an estimation of how much rain you could see.

Here's an overall outlook for thunderstorm chances today and then categorizing their severity. The chances to catch today's severe weather are considerably higher to the east of us, but isolated storms need to be watched on the plains.

As mentioned, we have higher chances for storminess later this week, including a temperature drop. From the fire danger perspective, today's wind and heat will thankfully subside.

So, we have heat and wind today, leading to increased fire dangers. Then we cool off a bit with higher chances for thunderstorms—albeit not a soggy outlook. For those on the plains, storms that can develop later today will gain strength the farther east they move, and higher risks of tornadoes exist today, especially in Nebraska.