We're tracking the potential for some severe weather going into Wednesday evening, the Denver metro area is under a level 2 threat for those severe storms. The Interstate 25 corridor is under that slight risk. We're sandwiched between two areas of more marginal threats for severe weather. 

Storm outlook

As far as storm threats are concerned, we have the risk of picking up any of our severe storm threats, with the greatest threat being hail. Along the Front Range, that means the threat of hail larger than an inch. But we also have the potential to see some of those strong, damaging winds gusting over 60 mph, localized flooding with heavy rain isn't out of the question, nor is the potential for some rotation that could lead to a tornado.

A severe thunderstorm watch is in effect until 10 Wednesday night for portions of the Front Range including: Boulder, Denver, Logan and Jefferson counties. 

Lingering moisture takes us into the night tonight, but that severe threat will start to diminish as we head into the evening and overnight hours.

Wildfire smoke

The other thing we'll watch on Wednesday is our smoke forecast. We have smoke burning from wildfires in western Colorado that has started to pour into the sky over the Denver metro area, so noticing maybe a little more moderate to heavy smoke in the Denver area out into eastern Colorado throughout the day, with, of course, the heaviest smoke being out west, where we're seeing those fires originate.

That smoke is likely to linger through Thursday. Western Colorado is under critical fire weather concerns and the dry weather and dry lightning are contributing to that fire danger.

Temperatures

Temperatures are staying hot for the western slope on Wednesday, lingering in the highs of upper-90s, whereas in Denver is going to be a little cooler; it will be in the low- to mid-80s, due to a cold front bringing.

Wednesday night, the Denver area could dip into the low 60s with a few lingering showers early on before a mostly cloudy night,.

Thursday afternoon, Denver is expected to return to the mid-80s. It will be a partly cloudy day with some more afternoon storm chances, but we're not tracking severe weather going into Thursday.