Marty’s Saturday Morning Forecast – First Weekend of Summer? Really? – 6/22/19

Overview: Our first official weekend of summer won’t feel much like summer as we continue to experience unusually cool air and a high coverage of rain, occasional thunder and even some snow over the mountains over the Continental Divide west of Denver where a Winter Weather Advisory is in effect until early Sunday morning! After numerous reports of very large hail and damaging wind gusts on Friday we are happy to report that the threat for severe weather will be much less this weekend.

Today: Overcast conditions for many should give way to a partly cloudy sky for a few hours starting late this morning or early this afternoon. By mid to late afternoon scattered showers and thunderstorms will be developing over and near the mountains, and by late in the day the rain should start becoming pretty widespread across parts of the area. Storms today will not likely produce hail or wind gusts as significant as yesterday, but the strongest cells could briefly approach severe criteria with hail to near an inch in diameter and wind gusts approaching 60 mph . Many thunderstorms may produce bursts of heavy rain, small hail, gusty wind and frequent lightning through late this afternoon. The air will be slow to warm and should remain cool today with high temperatures only reaching the 60s and 70s for the plains and 50s for the mountains where snow could fall at times above 10,000 feet ! Afternoon showers and thunderstorms will cool the air noticeably for many areas.

Tonight: Areas of rain and thunder should be widespread this evening, especially along and north of the Arkansas River. Snowfall elevations may lower to below 9,000 feet at times although accumulating snow should be limited to just brief whitening of cooler surfaces for areas where most people would travel; the highest peaks could receive a few inches of wet snow tonight. Although the majority of the precipitation should wind down after midnight it’s possible that spotty showers could continue into early Sunday morning. We’ll be breezy and cool with temperatures in the 30s and 40s on the higher terrain along as west of I-25 by morning with some lower 50s for the far eastern plains.

Sunday: Scattered showers are again possible on Sunday, especially over northern parts of our coverage area. The air will remain quite cool for early summer with high temperatures only reaching the 60s and 70s for the plains, 50s for the mountains, and we’ll have a chilly breeze at times.

Extended: The work week will bring much warmer and drier air to the area with just slight chances for brief, weak showers and thunderstorms over and near the mountains occasionally. High temperatures will eventually warm into the 80s and 90s for the plains with 70s returning to the mountains. For many it should finally feel as if summer has officially arrived this week!