A cool and elongated trough of low pressure over the Pacific Northwest currently stretches into the northern and central Rockies. This brought much cooler air to Nederland and the surrounding Foothills communities today. After a morning low of 49 F, our high temperature only reached 67 F, which is about 7 degrees below our normal of about 74 F for this time of year. The sky was a deep dark Colorado blue with only a few fair weather cumulus clouds this afternoon. It was also windy, with gusts up to 39 mph this morning. Despite the wind, it was a great day to get outside. Temperatures should drop back into the mid 40s F tonight, making for some pleasant sleeping weather.
The low over the Northwest will slowly retrograde (or move from southeast to northwest) over the next few days. As it does, the ridge of high pressure currently producing hot temperatures over the central part of the country will also retrograde (move from east to west) back towards the southern Rockies. It looks like subtropical moisture will gradually stream into Colorado on the west side of this ridge on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday,. This moisture combined with our strong early July sunshine will result in afternoon and evening thunderstorms, especially Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Right now, even though atmospheric instabilty will not be overly impressive, precipitable water values will be high, and the steering winds in the atmosphere will be light. This spells the recipe for slow moving storms capable of producing heavy rain and localized flooding. If you have outdoor plans for the Fourth of July, keep in mind that Saturday afternoon will be a bit stormy.
After that, things dry out early next week with warming temperatures. We could see highs back in the lower 80s F by the middle of next week.
In a nutshell, it will be dry and warm through Thursday.Thuderstorms on Friday and Saturday may produce heavy rain and some localized flooding. Things dry out in time for next week. Here is the Weather Underground forecast: