Scattered showers and thunderstorms may bring heavy winds and small hail to the northern foothills and eastern plains Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

Weekend storms are also expected to drop between 2 to 4 inches of fresh snow in the mountains, mainly over higher elevations above 8,000 feet, NWS forecasters said in a hazardous weather outlook Friday.

In lower elevations, the heaviest thunderstorms will develop Friday afternoon, east of Interstate 25, according to NWS meteorologists.

Quarter-sized hail and winds up to 60 mph are possible in Eastern Colorado throughout the day, especially near the Kansas-Colorado border, meteorologists said.

Denver has a 20% chance of rain Friday afternoon, and the city can expect to see warm temperatures peaking around 73 degrees, according to NWS forecasters. Temperatures will dip down to 39 degrees overnight before rising back into the high 60s Saturday afternoon.

Cooler weather is ahead for Denver next week as thunderstorms and rain showers are projected for multiple afternoons in the metro area, forecasters said.

For late Sunday into early Monday, a separate storm system will move across Wyoming into Colorado, possibly bringing another wave of fresh snow to the mountains, forecasters said.

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