There is also a chance of thunderstorms occurring in the northeast plains this evening. But overall the weather is expected to stay dry and warm from Sunday through Tuesday, according to the forecast.

In the Denver metro, it’s expected to be sunny with a high temperature around 88 degrees before dropping to the mid-50s Saturday evening. Similar temperatures are expected Sunday, according to the weather service.

National Weather Service meteorologists on Thursday confirmed a light dusting on mountains west of metro Denver, including Rocky Mountain National Park. Snow also settled atop Pikes Peak, west of Colorado Springs.

Arapahoe Basin, Keystone, Breckenridge and Copper Mountain all saw snow on the upper reaches of their ski mountains, as did the higher peaks of Summit County including Quandary Peak. A-Basin and Keystone will be vying to become the first Colorado ski area to open for the season, shooting for first tracks in October.

The snow fell at elevations as low as 11,000 feet above sea level in the mountains, meteorologists said. It won’t last long as temperatures rise.

On Thursday, temperatures were expected to stay in the 70s as thunderstorms rolled over the Front Range in the morning, mostly south of Interstate 70.

Over the weekend, forecasters anticipated warmer weather with high temperatures around 90 degrees.

Reporter John Meyer contributed to this report. 

The National Weather Service in Boulder is calling for the hot, dry weather to continue, with the temperature topping out at 89 degrees and dropping to a low of about 60 tonight.

More of the same is forecast for Tuesday, with a slight chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon.

Fire danger will be high in spots on the Eastern Plains, the weather service said. A large section of Colorado’s Front Range and the southeastern plains are abnormally dry, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Parts of the northern Front Range, including portions of Jefferson, Denver, Adams and Boulder counties, are in moderate to severe drought.

Slightly cooler weather is forecast for metro Denver starting by mid-week. The high temperatures are expected to drop into the low to mid-80s and the chance for rain showers is likely to increase.

That’s the weather forecast for today and Monday across Denver and the Front Range.

The National Weather Service Boulder expects temperatures to be above normal with temperatures ranging between 85 and 90 degrees in the urban corridor and the plains. Temperatures in the mountains will be 63 to 78 degrees, according to the forecast.

The mountains could see isolated thunderstorms.

Similar weather conditions are expected for the holiday on Monday with highs hovering near 90 in the Front Range and plains.

Skies will be hazy today with smoke from out-of-state wildfires that drifted into Colorado on Friday, according to the Colorado Air Pollution Control Division’s Smoke Blog. The smoke is lingering but atmospheric conditions should help the smoke disperse, beginning this afternoon, when light winds pick up.

High ozone warnings were lifted at midnight Saturday, but the smoke blog said many air quality monitors were detecting moderate particulate matter in the air, which could affect breathing for unusually sensitive people.

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“It might be heat stroke. He’s a football player,” a coach told 911, according to a recording obtained by The Progress-Index in Petersburg, Virginia. “We’ve been putting water on him. … We got ice we’re trying to put on him.”

Jayvion Taylor was taken to a hospital where he later died, the first in what would prove to be a deadly month for young football players.

In the next three weeks, at least five other high school and middle school football players would die in practices or games, according to news accounts. Among them was Leslie Noble IV, 16, the Franklin High School lineman who similarly collapsed at practice Aug. 14 and was remembered at funeral services Wednesday in Randallstown as a gentle, joyous giant.

The Maryland Medical Examiner has not yet released a cause of the teenager’s death, although dispatchers that day referred to heatstroke. Of the six athletes’ deaths found in news reports, two resulted from head injuries from tackles on the same day: Caden Tellier, 16, in Selma, Alabama, and Cohen Craddock, 13, in Madison, West Virginia.

In addition to Noble and Taylor, news accounts referred to the possibility of heat in the deaths of Semaj Wilkins, 14, of New Brockton High School in Alabama, and Ovet Gomez Regalado, 15, of Northwest High School in Shawnee Mission, Kansas.

The deaths have alarmed and saddened many who approach August with both anticipation for the coming football season and fear of the dangers that poses. Already by its high-contact nature a potentially dangerous sport, the record-breaking heat of recent years has heightened the risk for its players.

“You go through summer with your fingers crossed and hope you don’t see any heat-related injuries,” said Marty McNair, who has become an advocate for player safety in the six years since his son Jordan died of heatstroke suffered during a University of Maryland Terrapins practice. “It’s been horrific as far as student athlete deaths.”

While it’s difficult to discern trends in young athletes’ deaths because the total numbers remain thankfully low, experts say, July and August tend to present the most danger to football players.

“We don’t want to see any,” said Kristen Kucera, who directs the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Any amount of deaths in August we’re concerned about.”

The center’s data show two of the three high school football deaths reported last academic year occurred in July or August. For the two prior academic years, ending in June 2022 and June 2023, 6 of 11 and 3 of 7, respectively, occurred during those summer months.

“Everyone is increasingly concerned about heat across the board and not just in sports,” Kucera said.

And indeed, in Baltimore, a Department of Public Works employee, Ron Silver II, died of hyperthermia Aug. 2, prompting the city to pause trash and recycling collections Wednesday after temperatures climbed to 99 degrees.

With the last 10 years the warmest in nearly 175 years of recorded history, there is heightened urgency to finding a way to protect those who work or play in the heat of the summer.

One leading heat researcher predicts football will have to abandon its traditional role as a fall sport.

“In 20 years, high school [football] is going to be a spring sport,” said Douglas Casa, the CEO of the Korey Stringer Institute at the University of Connecticut. “It’s going to happen. Climate change is happening so much faster than we thought it would.”

The institute, which researches and seeks to prevent heat-related deaths in sports, labor and the military, is named after the Minnesota Vikings linebacker who died after suffering heatstroke at training camp in 2001.

Football’s current calendar puts the most vulnerable kind of athlete in the most rigorous kind of training at the riskiest time of year, Casa said.

“You take 300-pound kids in the hottest time of year and you put all this gear on them,” he said. “Big people heat up faster, and they cool down slower.”

Casa has helped multiple sports organizations, from the National Association of Athletic Trainers to the International Olympics Committee, develop guidelines for keeping athletes safe while practicing or competing in the heat.

In 2009, he co-wrote a consensus statement in the Journal of Athletic Training that outlines preseason heat acclimatization for secondary school athletics, which the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association recommends in its safety guidelines.

The first two days of football practice should only include helmets, per the recommendation. Shoulder pads are added for days 3-5, while introducing contact with blocking sleds and tackling dummies. Full contact should begin no earlier than day 6. Two-a-days shouldn’t be stacked back-to-back without a rest day in between. And the two practices are recommended to be separated by at least three hours in a cool environment.

Easing into the season is important given how quickly athletes can become dehydrated in the heat, both through sweating and breathing heavily in exertion, said Dr. Sunal Makadia, director of sports cardiology for LifeBridge Health, which operates Sinai Hospital in Baltimore and other facilities.

“This time of year, a lot of these players might either be new to the sport, or de-conditioned over the course of the summer, and they’re going in full-speed,” he said.

Makadia said the heat can be dangerous for everyone, from otherwise healthy kids to highly trained athletes to those who may have underlying heart conditions that previously were undiagnosed but emerge on the practice or playing field.

As a parent and a recreation league coach himself, Makadia recommends kids be screened by physicians before participating in a sport. That way, a doctor can review any symptoms, medications or family medical history that could contribute to potential problems, he said.

Spurred by tragic deaths, Maryland legislators have passed two laws in the last three years to improve safety for young athletes.

The Jordan McNair Safe and Fair Play Act passed in 2021 after the Randallstown native, whose death exposed a bullying culture on the Terps team and led to the firing of the football coach and the resignation of the chairman of the University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents. The law addresses, in part, guidelines for preventing and treating brain injuries and heat-related illnesses in higher education.

McNair’s death also inspired the introduction of a bill in Congress, which has not passed, requiring colleges and universities to create emergency heat plans.

Reform at the middle and high school level also came in 2022, a year after a 17-year-old Mergenthaler Vocational Technical High School football player died after suffering a brain injury when he was tackled in the end zone of a fall 2021 game. The Elijah Gorham Act mandates that middle and high schools develop emergency action plans, including having defibrillators and cooling equipment available.

Casa said he was heartened that it’s increasingly common for schools to have automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, and immersion tubs that can begin life-saving measures on the field before paramedics arrive.

No one should die from heat stroke, said Casa, who himself survived an episode as a 16-year-old running a 10K race. You simply have to cool a player down within the “golden half-hour” after symptoms emerge, he said, which is why more than 80% of high schools now have immersion tubs.

“It’s 100% survivable,” Casa said. “You have a tub of ice and water and your kid lives.”

Parents should ask if schools have a plan and the equipment to handle a player’s crisis, as well as an athletic trainer on site.

After hearing of Noble’s death, Maryland Sen. Shelly Hettleman, who helped pass both the McNair and Gorham legislation, did her due diligence to make sure Franklin High had the recommended safety measures in place.

“There was a trainer there. There was an AED nearby. It sounds like people responded as they should have,” the Baltimore County Democrat said. “Sometimes things like this are gonna happen, tragically, even when you have the best of policies in place, which I think happened here.”

Now, Hettleman is wondering: Can further preventative measures be taken? What kind of physicals are these young athletes undergoing before taking the field? And why is it happening in football more than other sports?

“I think it behooves us to look at that too,” Hettleman said. “I’m not hearing about field hockey players dropping dead on their fields, right? Or cross country runners?”

In the 2021-22 academic year, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research, there were 65 catastrophic sports injuries to high school or college athletes representing 10 sports, 36.9% being fatal. Of the 65, 52.3% were football players and 53.9% were cardiac or heat related.

Noble’s death brings the issue home again, much as did that of McNair, whose family lived in Hettleman’s district.

“This is a local tragedy,” Hettleman said, “but it’s within a context of larger issues that are happening to our younger athletes all over the country.”

Denver temperatures will hover near 90 through Monday with no rain or storms forecasted until Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service in Boulder.

Temperatures in the mountains are expected to max out in the mid-to high-70s. The mountains, too, should remain dry until Monday, when chances of isolated storms return.

https://x.com/NWSBoulder/status/1829487279737651315

Across the state, Thursday temperature highs will be several degrees below normal for the end of August, NWS forecasters said.

Denver will see highs around 83 degrees Thursday, 2 degrees below the 85-degree average for Aug. 29, according to NWS records.

Out on the Eastern Plains, temperatures are expected to hover around 78 degrees — 5 degrees below the average Aug. 29 temperature of 83 degrees on the plains, NWS forecasters said.

Scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms will rumble over the Eastern Plains throughout Thursday morning, largely clearing out by noon, forecasters said.

“Only an isolated shower or storm may redevelop in the mountains and foothills late this afternoon,” forecasters said in a hazardous weather outlook. “Temperatures will be cooler today, with a taste of fall tonight.”

The fall-like weather will disappear over the weekend as temperatures climb back into the high-80s and low-90s, forecasters said.

Hot and dry summer weather is expected to remain through Wednesday and critical fire weather conditions may develop on Sunday and Monday for the Eastern Plains, according to the hazardous weather outlook.

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That’s the outlook according to Dan West, one of the state’s leading forestry experts, who spends a lot of his time in airplanes every August, evaluating forest health across the state.

“From the air, everything is looking very green,” said West, an entomologist for the Colorado State Forest Service and a member of the faculty at Colorado State University. “I was down in Durango last week, looking at the southwest corner and man, they are green. Fields are green, as opposed to tan, as they were a year ago. Everything looks really nice down there.

“Same for the central part of the state,” he continued. “The whole Gunnison Basin has been above-average in precipitation — they’ve been getting the afternoon monsoonal flow — so things look like we’re setting up for a really good season.”

The onset of fall colors is primarily triggered by shorter days and longer nights, but environmental factors do play a role, resulting in variations from season to season.

West is predicting a normal season this year, which would mean seeing the first signs of color change — “a tinge of yellow,” as he put it — around Sept. 9 in the northern regions of the state. As such, the peak there would occur somewhere between Sept. 16-27.

West predicts the peak coming to the Interstate 70 corridor the last week of September.

Healthy forests make for awesome leaf-peeping. And, when it comes to aspen trees specifically, West said they seem to be doing great with few exceptions.

“I mapped almost no disturbance in aspen stands,” West said. “When I say disturbance, I’m talking about insects and disease. Some years we have environmental conditions that are perfect for fungal issues on leaves. We didn’t have that develop this year. That’s usually (caused by) a wet spring, followed by a really warm trend. We didn’t see that this year, so we didn’t end up with foliar issues — the fungi that feed on the foliage of aspens. We mapped almost no foliar issues in aspen.

“There are very small, isolated pockets of defoliating insects,” he added, “but nothing that’s widespread, nothing like what we’ve seen in years past, where the whole Grand Mesa was affected. It just hasn’t happened this year. It’s setting up to be a really good season.”

The 30-day forecast for September by the Climate Prediction Center of the National Weather Service calls for above-average temperatures and below-average precipitation. That may not be good news for ski areas hoping to fire up the snow guns in a few weeks, but it’s great news for fall foliage season.

“That sets us up for another great show,” West said.

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Widespread showers and thunderstorms are forecast across the mountains today, and will gradually spread into the Interstate 25 corridor and plains this afternoon and evening, NWS forecasters said in a hazardous weather alert Thursday.

Thunderstorms will bring heavy rain and possible flash flooding, especially over alpine burn scars, according to the hazardous weather outlook.

In areas where fire burns hot or long enough — including burn scars left by the Cameron Peak fire in Jackson and Larimer counties, the East Troublesome fire in Grand and Larimer counties, the Williams Fork fire in Grand County and the Alexander Mountain fire in Larimer County — the soil develops a water-repellant layer that reacts like rain on pavement, weather officials said.

Rainfall that would normally be absorbed by the forest canopy and loose tree litter on the ground instead runs off, starting flash floods during periods of heavy rain.

“If you can look uphill from where you are and see a burnt-out area, you are at risk,” NWS meteorologists said.

Gusty winds and hail are the main threats over Denver and east of the metro area, forecasters said in the hazardous weather outlook.

Expected wind speeds and hail sizes were not available Thursday morning, but NWS categorizes “strong” winds as 60 mph or more and “large” hail as hail from 1 inch to 1 3/4 inch in diameter — between the size of quarters and golf balls.

Storms will be most active in Denver between 5 p.m. and midnight, and strongest across the Eastern Plains between 2 p.m. and midnight, according to NWS meteorologists.

Denver will see temperature highs of 86 degrees Thursday before dropping into the low 60s overnight, according to forecasters.

Severe weather will continue throughout the week in the mountains and upper foothills, but the metro area can expect only mild afternoon showers through the weekend, forecasters said.

You might have a good feel for which two teams have the most talent, but what if one loses its star quarterback to a season-ending injury in November? You also might know that La Niña winters often result in above-average snowfall for Colorado’s high country, but sometimes La Niña winters result in well-below-average snow. That’s why meteorologists hedge when predicting conditions before Labor Day. Nevertheless, they try.

“I think the sports analogy is great,” says Alan Smith, a full-time meteorologist for the OpenSnow forecasting and reporting service. “You’re predicting future events, and you’re taking information that you have, but there’s so much information you don’t have, like injuries. You never know if a player on a team is going to suddenly explode that season – or regress.”

Still, anyone with an Epic or Ikon pass can’t help but wonder what kind of winter we will have. Labor Day is less than two weeks away, and the first Colorado ski area openings are apt to come in mid-October, most likely on man-made snow. So Smith provided his tentative 2024-2025 United States Winter Forecast Preview on the OpenSnow website.

Usually forecasts this time of year focus on the fluctuation of El Niño and La Niña in the eastern Pacific Ocean near the equator. Last ski season played out during a weak El Niño. Currently we’re in a transitional “neutral” status, but not for long.

“La Niña is favored to emerge during September-November (66% chance) and persist through the Northern Hemisphere winter 2024-25 (74% chance during November-January),” according to the Climate Prediction Center of the National Weather Service, which has issued a La Niña watch.

What does that mean for skiers and snowboarders in Colorado? Like betting on the Super Bowl this time of year, it’s all about the odds.

“El Niño and La Niña tend to get rated from weak to moderate to strong,” Smith said. “We never know for sure, but the trends seem to be pointing toward a weaker episode this year.”

Smith researched the six most recent weak La Niñas to see how Colorado resorts fared.

“Four of the six years were snowier than average, so that’s pretty decent odds,” Smith said. “However, one of those was well-below average. “That was in 2017-18, a very dry winter. If you expand it out to look at all La Niña years, Colorado does seem to have a boom-or-bust potential with La Niña.

“It tips the odds slightly in favor of being an above-average winter in the ski regions of Colorado,”  he continued. “But sometimes the winters that end up below average that are La Niñas can be well below average.”

The winter of 2021-22 was a moderate La Niña and snowfall was decent, featuring a slow start but strong spring snows. The winter of 2022-23 was a weak La Niña that capped off a rare three-year “triple dip” La Niña. That was a fantastic season for Colorado resorts.

“November was cold and snowy,” Smith said of the 2022-23 winter. “It really jump-started the season, and it was consistent all season long — one of the most consistent winters I remember seeing.”

Last winter, under a strong El Niño, was slightly above average for snowfall. Now we get to guess the odds for this winter.

“There’s just so many factors you don’t know,” Smith said. “If you’re just looking at history, the odds tell us it’s slightly better than a 50-50 chance of being an above-average winter. But there’s always going to be that chance it could be a well-below-average winter.”

Colorado’s first ski area opening dates over the past five seasons

2019: Arapahoe Basin, Oct. 11

2020: Wolf Creek, Oct. 28

2021: Wolf Creek, Oct. 16

2022: Arapahoe Basin, Oct. 23

2023: Arapahoe Basin, Oct. 29

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