Weather forecast for the weekend and next week: summer like with a few storms at times

05/09/25 8:35am: Happy Friday! Lets take a look at what we can expect weather-wise this weekend into next week. A bit of weather for the mountains today, otherwise a big ridge of high-pressure over CO from now through next Tue....then as a large trough approaches from the west the weather will get more active again from Wed to Fri next week (05/14-05/16) with likely some strong thunderstorms in spots and maybe some rain/snow for the mountains.

For today a round of showers for the mountains. For all the central mountains near the Cont. Divide from north to south a chance for scattered weak thunderstorms and some snow above 9kft primarily from 1pm-9pm (this includes Grand and Summit Counties and south towards Sawatch to Elks to San Juans). Trace-2" of snow in spots above 10k ft.

Den/Bou and the front-range will just be turning a bit more cloudy this afternoon with the slightest chance for an isolated storm after 3pm, best chances in foothills (most areas stay dry)

For tomorrow mostly warm and dry across much of the state. A slight chance for isolated rain/snow showers over parts of the south-central mountains from 3pm-8pm, best chance south of I-70 across parts of the south-central mountains towards San Juans.

Big warm up for Sun-Tue next week with high temps getting well into the 80s for Den/Bou...in fact likely near 90 by Mon and Tue (60s/70s in the mountains). We will stick with slight thunderstorm chances on each afternoon but won't be much.

Then attention turns to the big trough forecast to move out of the western U.S. and towards CO next Wed/Thu....as of now looks like the bulk of the trough is going to track north of CO, but this would create a good thunderstorm regime over parts of the state Wed, Thu and Fri.

Front-range (Den/Bou) and the eastern plains likely have best chance for stronger storms next Wed afternoon / evening (after 3pm) and that may continue into Thu

Mountains will have better rain/snow chances from Wed afternoon through Fri afternoon next week (but unclear how much precip there will be, maybe some snow accum in spots by end of next week again).

In terms of wind, not seeing any really strong wind over the next 5 days. A bit windy with the storms in the mountains this afternoon (some east / northeast wind-gusts of 20-40 mph above 9k ft). Then maybe a bit more westerly wind in parts of the mountains Sat afternoon but with gusts generally under 30 mph. Not much wind for Den/Bou, a bit breezy at times.

First image loop shows forecast radar over the next 48hrs (6am this morning though 6am Sun) from latest HRRR. Second image shows forecast total liquid precip over the next 48hrs, just a bit for the mountains. Image 3 shows the big trough next Wed (05/15) at 6pm. Image 4 shows the 8 day forecast for Denver from TWC.