Colorado Weather: Cold, Wind And Snow Hits Friday
DENVER(CBS)- Get ready for a return to reality! After enjoying a week of unseasonably warm weather we have a quick blast of winter returning to the Front Range. We have two systems that will come together for the big Friday change.
A small disturbance coming out of the Pacific northwest and the big driver of the shift is a cold front coming straight out of Canada. The two will come together Friday morning over Colorado.
The morning commute will not be effected greatly but, the afternoon drive will be a different story. Snow should begin in earnest over the Denver metro area after 9 or 10 am. From there accumulations should really ramp up after 3pm.
Snow may start sticking to roadways from Denver into the southern and southwestern suburbs during Friday afternoon rush.
Larger snow amounts will be confined to the area in and near where the Front Range Foothills and the Palmer Divide come together. The reason for this is the wind flow is mostly straight out of the north and north-east this flow brings upslope to the south and south-western areas. From Evergreen, Conifer, Bailey out thru Highlands Ranch, Castle Rock, Parker, Elizabeth down to Monument Hill.
At this point it looks like a Trace to an inch for the Denver metro area up to Lyons and out to Deer Trail. Boulder, down thru Littleton and Castle Rock may see1 to 3 inches. Areas in and near the foothills of Jefferson, Douglas , Park and Elbert County may see 2 to 5 inches of snow.
This is not going to be a big mountain snow maker. Northern Front Range mountains may see 2 to 4 inches of snow. West of the Continental Divide most mountain areas will see about 1 to 3 inches of snow.
Wind and cold will also be a big component of our end of week change.
High temperatures will drop mostly into the 40s and 30s for many areas of the state. For Denver Friday's high will be close to 20 degrees cooler than Thursday's top temp of 62 degrees.
Strong north winds will blow across the eastern plains. Some spots may reach as high as 50 mph gusts! Denver's gusts may peak out to 35 mph!
