After several weeks of spring-like weather, a sharp cold front is set to sweep across Colorado tonight, bringing a significant drop in temperatures along with rain and snow across much of the state.
The high country is expected to receive anywhere from 10 to 15 inches of snow starting Tuesday evening and continuing until Wednesday morning. According to the National Weather Service, the rapidly dropping temperatures could result in a flash freeze — so hazardous travel conditions are expected on mountain roads, including on Interstate 70.
Farther east, red flag warnings are in place for the second straight day for the Denver metro area and eastern Colorado — with gusts expected to reach around 60 mph. Snow is also expected for the Front Range mountain ranges — including the Rabbit Ears Range, Medicine Bow Mountains, and the Indian Peaks — according to Maggie Ideker, a forecaster with the National Weather Service, those ranges are expected to receive anywhere from 6 to 10 inches of snow.
Ideker said “temperatures will be just a little bit too warm for any snow,” across the Denver metro area. “Denver and the surrounding areas will maybe have a trace of snow to half an inch at most,” she said.
The storm is expected to taper off by Wednesday, but another system could arrive Friday evening, bringing additional snowfall to the mountains.
“So we’ll have a couple more chances for some mountain snow showers mostly on Friday and Saturday,” Ideker said. “It doesn’t look like it’ll reach the plains, though, so we’re thinking it will mostly impact the mountains Saturday night.
Following the storm system expected to impact Colorado this week, temperatures are forecasted to rise again by next week. According to current forecasts, the Denver metro is expected to have highs in the 70s by Monday and the southern part of the state may see highs in the 60s.
