Heavy thunderstorms rolled into Mesa County Monday night, swelling culverts in Palisade and Clifton to near-flooding levels and keeping fire crews busy with lightning-sparked fires.

A fire that threatened structures near Parachute and Wallace Creek had grown from 20 to 100 acres by 8:30 p.m., about an hour after it started, and was fed by storm cell winds. The National Weather Service issued a flood advisory for Palisade, Clifton and the eastern parts of Orchard Mesa that was to expire at midnight, and warned of minor street and culvert flooding.

Five engines, a Hot Shot crew and two helicopters were called on to fight the fire, which was burning pinyon juniper in a canyon five miles southwest of Parachute, said David Boyd, with the Bureau of Land Management.

But firefighters had no luck gaining the upper hand, and the blaze was burning uncontained at 9:20 p.m., Boyd said.

Boyd said he did not know whether the threatened structures were homes or commercial property. He said he was not sure whether the fire was started by lightning but that many strikes were in the area of the fire.

“This fire is displaying extreme fire behavior,” Boyd said. “Storm cell winds are extremely erratic, and they are kicking the fire up. It’s moving very fast.”

The storm moved northwest about 5 mph, the Weather Service advisory said, and dropped more than an inch an hour.

The advisory also warned against water collecting in ponds along Interstate 70 from Palisade to De Beque.

The Weather Service is forecasting a soggy week for Mesa County, with isolated thunderstorms and about a 30 percent chance of precipitation predicted through the end of the week.

That does not bode well for firefighters, who fought at least two additional fires Monday night. The two were weed fires near Glade Park and Collbran were started by lightning strikes but were far from any structures.

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E-mail Cassie Hewlings at Cassie.Hewlings@gjsentinel.com.