Denver Weather: Get Ready For A 50 Degree Temperature Drop! Plus A Little Snow

DENVER (CBS4) - Wednesday will be another warm spring day with high temperatures more than 10 degrees above normal for the first day of April. The Denver and Boulder areas will reach near 70 degrees. Then a potent cold front arrives Wednesday night causing temperatures to plummet for Thursday and Friday.

The warmest temperatures in Colorado on Wednesday will be in the southeast corner of the state where cities like Lamar could hit 80 degrees.

High temperatures on Thursday will drop into the 30s around Denver, Boulder, and Fort Collins while overnight lows into Friday will drop to near 20 degrees in the metro area. It will be the first of two nights with a hard freeze for lower elevations. A hard freeze is generally defined as a temperature below 28 degrees.

In terms of precipitation, it will be limited for lower elevations with less than 1 inch is most areas. No more than 2 inches is expected in some areas closer to the base of the foothills. Most of the snow that falls east of the Continental Divide including in the Denver metro area will come after 5 p.m. on Thursday. Before this time, a light mix of rain and snow is possible during the day on Thursday with very little if any accumulation.

Friday will be chilly but mainly dry other than a few mountain snow showers and possibly a few flurries or very light snow showers in the afternoon along the Front Range. No accumulation is expected at lower elevations after early Friday morning.

A warming trend will return for the weekend with highs reaching near 60 degrees in the metro area on Saturday and closer to 70 degrees again on Sunday.