DENVER —
The warm, dry and windy weather means that fire danger will once again be a concern on Thursday Fire weather warnings will be in effect for all of eastern Colorado. Wind gusts near 50 mph across the plains and even higher in the foothills and mountains. The winds will die down a little overnight, but then pick up again Thursday.
The winds will be strong ahead of the next cold front that will sweep across Colorado Thursday night. Snow will develop in the mountains late Thursday and accumulate to 6 to 12 inches through Friday.
It appears that the track of this storm will be over northern Colorado into the panhandle of Nebraska. This track will produce heavy snow for the northern and central mountains, but will keep the heaviest snow for lower elevations in Wyoming and Nebraska.
At this point, it looks as though eastern Colorado and Denver will have strong winds and colder temperatures with one to three inches of snow on Friday. The powerful winds will produce blizzard conditions over northeastern Colorado during the day on Friday. Road closures will be likely to the north and east of a line from Fort Morgan to Limon to Burlington Friday afternoon.
Afternoon temperatures on Friday will be in the 30s for Denver, about 40 degrees colder than on Thursday. Wind chills will be in the single digits on Friday due to the strong north winds.
By early Saturday, the winds will have diminished and skies will clear. It will be cold Saturday morning as lows will dip into the upper 20s, followed by highs in the low 50s.
Expect dry weather and a warming trend Sunday and Monday.