Rain reports and a look at the thunderstorm forecast for Fri and Sat

07/11/25 8:45am: Another active weather day for the front-range with afternoon thunderstorms, with little rain west of the Divide and over western CO (luckily wind will be light there for the fires, but will remain dry).

The expected cold-front for the front-range will be hung-up over the CO/WY border until later today (so still pretty warm), but will push down the front-range after 5/6pm today and give better storm chances.

First good to see heavy rain in spots yesterday, mostly over the eastern part of the state, some over southern CO as well. I show top 24hr rain reports from CoCoRaHS in image 2. Here are some notable rain reports:

Greeley 1.7 ESE: 0.87"
Kim 8.8 SSE: 0.75"
Greeley 0.8 NW: 0.61"
Wray 5.7 SSW: 0.51"
Akron 0.8 ESE: 0.48"
Loveland 2.7 E: 0.34"
Monte Vista 2.4 E (SLV): 0.25"
Colorado Springs 15.3 N: 0.24"
Golden 1.6 SW: 0.24"
Wheat Ridge 0.6 S: 0.20"

As I mentioned yesterday we have an upslope regime (east to west wind-flow with deeper moisture east of the Cont. Divide) in place today so that will put the focus for all the storm action basically along/east of the Cont. Divide: favoring parts of the front-range and eastern plains this afternoon.

For Den/Bou and the front-range: storms will first develop near/along the Palmer Divide and in the foothills west of Denver 1pm-3pm timeframe, then slowly fill in over the front-range and plains. For Den/Bou best chances for storms will be from 3pm-8pm with some heavy rain in spots (and some wind and maybe small hail).

After 6pm strongest thunderstorms will be over northeast CO, east of a Greeley to DIA line, with some severe storms in spots (heavy rain, some hail and wind)

For the north-central mountains most of the action will be from Summit Co east, and especially over the front-range mountains from 1pm-8pm (best chances 3pm-7pm).

Unfortunately no rain expected over western CO today.

For tomorrow most of the afternoon thunderstorm action will be over south-central to southeast CO, best coverage from Buena Vista east and south of Castle Rock, near Colorado Springs and towards the SLV (including Alamosa and Sangres) from 2pm-8pm.

For Den/Bou tomorrow just a slight chance for an isolated storm after 3pm tomorrow (most of it will be south). And also very little storms for the north-central mountains tomorrow (except from Hoosier Pass south).

First image loop shows forecast radar over the next 48hrs (6am this morning to 6am Sun) from latest NAM-3km model. Second image shows top 24hr rain reports across the state. Third image shows the cold-front moving down the front-range with cooler air filters in after 6pm today. Fourth image is forecast slide from Den/Bou NWS office.