08/21/25 8:15am: Morning. One more really hot day before some relief comes in tonight and better rain chances build across the state through the weekend into next week: which is still looking cool and rainy in many areas.

In the meantime, thinking about the Derby Fire in Eagle county (which grew even more last night) and how that will spread today into tomorrow (with a gusty cold-front coming in late tonight).

Also thinking about a cold-front for the front-range, early tomorrow morning and thunderstorm coverage for Fri into Sat.

On Friday, the focus for rain and thunderstorms will be along the front-range (north and south) and over eastern CO, mostly east of the Cont. Divide

By Saturday deeper moisture moves into southern CO and the front-range with a focus for storms over the southern mountains (San Juans to southern Sawatch) and also over parts of the front-range (Den/Bou) again.

By Sun deeper moisture moves into all of CO, including western CO and the north-central mountains.

And then looks like the wettest period for much of CO including front-range, mountains and western CO will be from Mon through Thu next week (08/25-08/28) with some rounds of heavy rain in spots.

Here are some details for the next few days:

• First for today, hot and mostly dry but with a few thunderstorms over northern CO: best chances will be over the northern front-range mountains and foothills (upper parts of Boulder and Larimer counties) from 4pm-9pm ahead of a cold front.

• For Den/Bou and the urban corridor: high temps near 100 today, then just a slight chance for an isolated storm mostly after 5pm, most areas stay dry, cooler air comes in overnight

  In terms of wind over northwest CO, fairly light today, then turning stronger from 8pm this evening through 2am Fri with a surge of north / northwest wind-gusts of 20-30 mph

• A cold-front will move down the front-range between 6am-9am Sat and will bring in some cloud-cover and coole temps: Sat will likely start out cloudy with maybe even a few light rain showers in the foothills.

• Then for Den/Bou and the front-range on Sat a better chance for scattered, strong storms from 1pm-9pm, best chances around the edges (foothills, Palmer Divide, east of I-25 later in the day).

• For the north-central mountains on Fri: maybe a few rain showers in the morning in spots but not much, then a better chance for isolated to scattered storms from 1pm-9pm, best chances from Summit Co. east.

• Best coverage of storm in the mountains on Fri will be from Hoosier Pass south (southwest and southeast), parts of south-central mountains will have some late storms: 5pm-10pm on Fri

• Then on Saturday better rain chances for most of the south-central mountains, southwest mountain and front-range (including Den/Bou) from 1pm-9pm again. More limited coverage over parts of northwest CO (including mountains west and north of Vail Pass).

• Then on Sunday turning cooler with good storm chances in most areas (mountains and plains) from 1pm-9pm again.

• Looking juicy and cold from Mon-Thu, especially chilly (relatively speaking) east of the Cont. Divide. Still looks like high temps may not get above 65 in Denver for Mon, Tue and maybe Wed. Front Range mountains will be chilly with highs in the 40s/50s on those days.

• Some light snow expected in spots Sun night, Mon night and Tue night above 13k ft favoring Front Range mountains (like Pikes Peak, etc).

  
  

More on all the big precip details for next week later.

First image loop show forecast radar over the next 48hrs (6am this morning through 6am Sat) from latest HRRR. Second image shows forecast dewpoints at 9am tomorrow showing the cold-front draped across northeast CO. Third image shows forecast liquid precip from now through 6am Sun from NWS Blend of Models...take with a big grain of salt, it just shows the signals where thunderstorms are most likely Fri and Sat, depicted in the darker blue (but amounts will vary).

Finally, I also show NWS Blend of total precip through 6am Wed, but again you have to take this with a big grain of salt, no way total precip will pan out exactly like this, it will be much more hit or miss due to the convective nature / thunderstorm nature of the precip...but signals are strong for heavy precip in spots....really hoping western CO gets in on this action, again, likely less than what is shown in the last image.