Traffic-Halting I-70 Avalanche A Hint Of Increasing Danger

SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) - Video of an avalanche rumbling across Interstate 70 early Friday afternoon served to validate experts' warnings about the increased danger of high-country snowslides this weekend.

This as a new storm system arriving Sunday threatens to release additional accumulation on weakly connected layers of deepening snow.

David Roth was driving westbound on I-70 just after 1 p.m. Friday when the slide billowed downhill and across the roadway. By the end of the recording, the snow cloud had reached Roth's vehicle.

Less than a year ago, Colorado travelers experienced record-setting avalanches along the same stretch of I-70, referred to as Tenmile Canyon.

The northern and central mountains of Colorado saw the greatest impact. Ski areas near the slide measured two-and-a-half feet of new snow from the most recent system.

RELATED: Extreme Colorado Avalanches From March Still Under Review 

Forecasters from the Colorado Avalanche Information Center placed the avalanche danger in those areas at a Level 4 out of 5 Friday. It remains high through Saturday. Kreston Rohrig of the CAIC posted a Youtube video on Thursday, prior to the system's arrival, describing the "weak facets" of the snow layers along Vail Pass.

"Digging here was like digging in a sandbox," Rohrig said of the granular snow. "Really weak."

Five to ten more inches of snow is expected in the mountains from Sunday's incoming system.