Better rain and storm chances today

Smoke and haze will be present in El Paso county and north to Castle Rock/Denver today, but cleaner air from thunderstorms out west will move in later today.

A few scattered showers and storms are pushing down a lot of wind and not much rain early Thursday morning, and more storms will arrive later today.

Storms should be non-severe from the mountains to the plains today, but very strong winds and locally heavy downpours will be possible.

A cold front tonight could bring strong to severe storms across the plains, especially north of Kiowa county.