(SOUTHERN COLORADO) — Outdoor plans over the weekend, particularly in the afternoon and evening, are likely to be impacted by an incoming weather change.

The changes are coming in two parts as a cold front from the north will move in late Friday, bringing cooler air and abundant low-level moisture. At the same time, an upper-level area of high pressure to the west, indicated by the closed white circle centered over the four corners, brings monsoon moisture up from the south and over Colorado in clockwise flow.

This squeeze play over the Centennial state will make rain and storms more likely with time through the weekend and for the start of next week. Storms will kick off with the arrival of the cold front over northern areas on Friday afternoon. The weekend features the typical timing of afternoon and evenings for rain and storms. A second cold front may make for abundant clouds and even some morning rain or a rumble of thunder early next week, particularly on Monday.

The strongest individual storms will tend to produce moderate to, at times, heavy rain, and multiple days of widespread stormy weather may bring a nice soaking to parts of southern Colorado, particularly over the eastern mountains, foothills, and I-25. There is still a little bit of work to do on figuring out how far east storms will tend to make it — and we’ll keep working on that as the weekend nears.

This pattern change promises to impact a good bit of the country for the last week of August, too. The eastern U.S. will get a welcome cool-down while the monsoon returns and brings much-needed rain to the west, where fires continue to burn.