DENVER — Ping pong ball-size hail, high winds and brief funnel clouds or landspouts are possible Thursday in northeastern Colorado as the National Weather Service (NWS) has issued a severe thunderstorm watch for several counties until 7 p.m.
Colorado counties in the watch include Logan, Morgan, Sedgwick and Weld.
Severe thunderstorms are expected to form between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. with the greatest risk of a damaging storm staying north of Denver.
“Isolated thunderstorms are a possibility later today for the Front Range but it doesn’t look like we’ll see a whole lot of severe weather,” said Denver7 Meteorologist Stacey Donaldson.
The entire Denver metro area and communities north through Longmont, Boulder to Greeley and Fort Collins are under a marginal risk of a severe storm, but are not included in the severe thunderstorm watch.
The marginal risk of severe weather extends south through Castle Rock to Colorado Springs.
The far northeastern corner of Colorado is under a slight risk (level 2 of 5) of severe storms.
“Hail up to 1.5" in diameter along with wind gusts to 60 mph will be the main threat. In addition, heavy rainfall may produce some localized flooding in some areas,” said the NWS, which added there is a possibility a landspout could form in the northeast corner of the state.
“If they developed, they would most likely occur with initial thunderstorm development near a line from eastern Boulder County into Weld County,” said the NWS.
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In addition to the Colorado communities under the severe thunderstorm watch, portions of Wyoming and Nebraska are also included in the watch.
Isolated thunderstorms return to Denver’s weather forecast during the mid-afternoon hours on Friday with high temps expected to reach the mid-80s.
“Up until that point, we’ll see partly cloudy skies with those showers forming out to the west by around 4 o’clock with a few waves of showers pushing by as we head into the late evening hours,” said Donaldson.
Saturday in Denver will bring warmer temps, reaching the low 90s as scattered showers and storms are expected.
Sunday should remain dry as the afternoon high reaches the md-90s and then even hotter conditions arrive by the beginning of next week.
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