A blast of Arctic air is set to move into Colorado this weekend, bringing light snow to the Front Range and frigid temperatures across the state.
The cold front is expected to arrive Friday, with snow developing overnight and wrapping up by Saturday morning for much of the Front Range — including the Denver metro area. Denver is expected to receive up to three inches of snow, with Northern Front Range communities, like Fort Collins, receiving less — anywhere from one to two inches of snow.
The heaviest snowfall is expected in the high county — particularly across the San Juans in southwest and central Colorado — where some areas could pick up close to a foot of snow.
But National Weather Service meteorologist Bernie Meier said the bigger concern with this storm isn’t snowfall — it’s the cold.
“The main threat, the main feature especially across eastern Colorado will be the colder temperatures,” Meier told CPR News. “With those colder temperatures, it won't take much snowfall to make the roads slippery. So even though we're only expecting maybe up to one to three inches, that'll probably be enough to make slippery driving conditions come Saturday morning.”
The state’s transportation authority says they’re also anticipating heavy traffic over the weekend — particularly on I-70 — due to the incoming, fresh snow in the forecast as well as the X-Games taking place in Aspen.
“It’s important to note that our team at CDOT is prepared for winter snow events,” a spokesperson for the agency said in a statement. “Our maintenance teams are on their winter schedules, and we have the needed assets in place to ensure we keep traffic flowing and that travelers get to their destinations as safely as possible.”
According to CDOT, they are deploying 24-hour snow plows to ensure the busy roads, like I-70, stay open.
Temperatures Saturday and Sunday are expected to stay in the teens across the Front Range and eastern plains, with overnight lows dropping into the single digits and possibly near zero.
Mountain communities are expected to avoid the coldest air.
Looking ahead to Sunday’s Broncos game against the New England Patriots at Empower Field at Mile High, Bernie Meyer says fans shouldn’t expect much snow — just a few flurries at most. Instead, the main factor will be the cold, with temperatures hovering in the low 20s. It’s the team’s first conference championship game appearance since 2016, a decade ago.
Despite the snowfall, the storm is not expected to significantly improve Colorado’s ongoing snow drought. Statewide snowpack remains well below average, and this system will only provide a modest boost in select mountain areas.
