Colorado Weather: Storms Will Threaten Mountain Hikers This Weekend, Especially Sunday

DENVER (CBS4) - Get ready for a very warm weekend across the lower elevations of Colorado with widespread highs in the 80s and 90s. The unusually warm weather may prompt you to head into the high country to cool down.

If that's the case and you plan to go hiking make sure you get an early start because thunderstorms are expected both Saturday and Sunday. Typically in the higher elevations the first storms of the day will pop up sometime between 10:30 a.m. and the noon hour.

Outside of the mountains the storm chances are very low and most places will remain dry for the entire weekend. An elongated ridge of high pressure stretching from Phoenix to Bismarck is responsible for pumping in hot air. Denver should see the first 90 degree reading of the season this weekend which is just a little less than a week ahead of normal.

We have a great page here on CBSDenver.com with all kinds of hiking weather resources. Many of the maps are updated in real-time by the computers in Colorado's Weather Center. Click here to check it out now. You may want to bookmark it for future reference.