Colorado Weather: Snow causes winter driving conditions in the mountains, rain possible in the metro area

A complex storm system coming from California will continue causing snow in the mountains through Wednesday night. Impacts will be much less severe along the Front Range with nothing more than a few rain showers.

As of early Wednesday morning, every ski area in Colorado had already received at least a couple inches of snow from this most recent storm. And many ski areas west and southwest of Vail Pass had already received more than a foot of snow. Most ski areas closer to Denver including the mountains of Summit County had received 2-6 inches.

The heaviest additional accumulation in the high country will be found in the San Juan Mountains where a Winter Storm Warning continues through midnight Wednesday night for up to another foot of snow.

Farther north including the I-70 mountain corridor, there is a Winter Weather Advisory through midnight Wednesday night for another 4-8 inches of snow. Plan on slow and slick travel in the mountains including along I-70 between Georgetown and Avon through Wednesday evening. Additional highway closures are possible mainly due to accidents.

All the snow in the mountains also means Avalanche danger. The Colorado Avalanche Information Center has issued an Avalanche Warning through Thursday afternoon for most of Colorado's western mountains. Backcountry travel and activities is strongly discouraged in these areas.

For Denver and the Front Range, no more a few showers are expected on Wednesday mainly in the afternoon and/or early evening. In most cases, it could be just enough moisture to get the pavement wet. No weather related travel issues are expected in the Denver metro area.