Turning smoky with good thunderstorm chances (Wed-Fri)

07/30/25 9:10am: You may have noticed its pretty hazy out there this morning. With the current weather pattern, the other thing we will be dealing with over the next 24-36 hours is an influx of smoke from the wildfires burning in western CO and across the western U.S. (mostly from OR and WA).

As I mentioned before, its worth looking at the near-surface smoke forecast for biggest impacts in terms of health and visibility.

The HRRR smoke model shows a big influx of smoke into the central mountains after 2pm today and the thicker / surface smoke will spread into parts of the front-range (Den/Bou) moslty after 6pm today.

Models show pretty smoky conditions at times over parts of CO from generally 3pm today through 3pm Thu. First image loop shows forecast near-surface smoke over the next 48hours (6am this morning through 6am Fri) from latest HRRR model.

Of course, along with the smoke will be some strong thunderstorms in spots. Images 2 and 3 show forecast radar for today at 5pm (from HRRR) and 6pm (from NAM-3km) showing the potential for strong storms moving through. Even prior to this some good storms for the mountains today.

From my post this morning:

"We have two active weather days coming up today and Thu with good afternoon storm chances.

Good coverage of storms across the north-central and south-central mountains today: 1pm-9pm

For Den/Bou and the front-range scattered storms from 3pm-9pm, best coverage around the edges: foothills, Palmer Divide, etc. For the urban corridor a bit dependent on how warm we can get (and if we can break the cap). Best chances today 5pm-7pm.

On Thu another good chance for scattered storms in the north-central and south-central mountains: 1pm-8pm again

For Den/Bou and the front-range tomorrow, Thu may bring the best chances for stronger storms: scattered storms likely from 2pm-8pm again."