Colorado Weather: Drought Suddenly Returns To The State

DENVER (CBS4) - Somewhat cooler weather is forecast for Friday thanks to a summer cold front that will also bring a chance for showers and thunderstorms. The dry,  sunny, and very hot weather will build over Colorado through the holiday weekend.

The chance for showers and thunderstorms along the Front Range on Friday will largely come between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. By 8 p.m. most of the storm activity should be on the Eastern Plains where a few storms could be strong enough to produce hail up to the size of quarters and wind gusts up to 60 mph. Therefore it should be mainly dry with temperatures in the 70s during most of the Rocky Mountain showdown Friday evening at Mile High.

Starting Saturday, the weather story is definitely heat. Highs will reach the near 90 degrees on Saturday, then the mid 90s on Sunday, and then the upper 90s for Labor Day. The record high for Monday is 95 degrees set on September 2, 1983 and it's very likely that record will be broken. The record for Labor Day regardless of the date is 97 degrees set on September 4, 1995. That also happens to be the hottest temperature ever recorded in Denver in September. So, there is a chance Monday could be the hottest September day in Denver weather history going back to when records started 147 years ago in 1872.

The unprecedented heat is coming at a time when the first drought in more than 3 months has suddenly reappeared in Colorado. Before this week, the last occurrence of drought in the state was in mid-May. For now only the extreme southwest corner of Colorado is experiencing moderate drought but about 20% of the state is now experiencing "abnormally dry" conditions.

The hot and mostly dry weather expected over the holiday weekend has prompted officials to implement fire restrictions in various parts of the state. On Thursday the Forest Service announced Stage 1 fire restrictions in the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests in Boulder, Gilpin, Clear Creek and Park counties.