Colorado Weather: Record Heat Ends With Snow On Tuesday

DENVER (CBS4) - The wild weather ride is about to begin! Just to our north, a powerful cold front and low pressure system are barreling toward Colorado. We are in for a massive cool down and the first September snow in 20 years for Denver.

Right around midnight, rain could start for the Front Range and foothills. The rain could turn over to snow around sunrise or soon after. The snow will get more widespread throughout the morning, moving into the high country and eastern plains.

Winter Storm Warnings and Winter Weather Advisories cover most of Colorado through Wednesday morning. The very tricky part about this storm is that it will take a very long time to see any accumulation. It will snow on and off through most of the day on Tuesday and into Wednesday morning, but it may not be until after sunset on Tuesday we start to see accumulation. We have been so hot, that the ground is radiating heat. This will prevent many areas from seeing any snow stick. The high country and higher elevations of the foothills could see snow stick a little earlier, however those areas have been very hot as well. So even though we have a Winter Weather Advisory for 3 to 7 inches of snow for the Denver area, you most likely won't see that pile up on your sidewalk.

Temperatures plummet from the 90s on Monday to the 30s on Tuesday. We will drop below freezing on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. We will have a Freeze Warning for eastern Colorado and a Freeze Watch for parts of western Colorado. This will be a very tough night for our Colorado farmers. If you have plants or a garden you're trying to save, take precautions on Monday evening.

The snow will linger in northern Colorado through Wednesday morning before tapering off. Southern Colorado could continue to see snow through the day on Wednesday.

The big chill and snow won't last for long. We will be back to the 60s on Friday with the mid 70s again for Saturday.