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Mountain Snow Starts Late Saturday

By Ashton Altieri

DENVER (CBS4) - After reaching the middle and upper 50s in the Denver area on Friday, not much will change in terms of temperatures through the weekend. What will change is our completely dry weather. At least in the mountains.

A storm over Oregon late Friday will race toward Colorado on Saturday causing snow to spread over the mountains by late Saturday afternoon. The heaviest snow will likely fall during the evening hours and will then taper off through the early morning hours of Sunday. The storm has several limiting factors including it's speed (it's moving fast!), it's shape (it's unorganized), and it's position (the main storm stays well north of Colorado). All of these factors will keep snow amounts generally in the 3-6 inch range at most of the ski areas. A few mountain areas could see more. Others less.

In terms of precipitation in the Denver, Boulder, and Fort Collins areas, it seems unlikely. We may see a few flurries Sunday morning. Maybe even a light rain shower. Either way, it won't be much!

Looking ahead to next week, we start sunny, dry, and warm for January with highs near 60°. Then a stronger storm looks to materialize on Wednesday. Right it looks like the mountains could see some heavy snow especially Wednesday night. It's more unclear what will happen in the metro area because temperatures may be too warm for much snow. It may end up being a lot of rain based on the current data. And of course that would be very unusual for Denver in January.

Ashton Altieri is a Certified Broadcast Meteorologist. Watch him on the CBS4 Morning News weekdays from 4:30 a.m. to 7 a.m. Connect with Ashton on Facebook and on Twitter @AshtonCBS4.

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