Denver Weather: Mild On Friday But Not Pretty With More Bad Air

DENVER (CBS4) - The Denver and Boulder areas remain under an Air Quality Alert through Friday afternoon due to pollution being trapped near the ground. Visibility will suffer and the infamous brown cloud will be visible again.

Overall air quality should not be as poor on Friday as it was on Thursday. And the air should gradually improve through the day as southwest winds help to scour out the pollution that has been trapped near the ground in recent days.

That said, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) has issued an Air Quality Alert through 4 p.m. Friday for Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Boulder, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson Counties. All residents in these seven counties are asked to limit driving non-electric vehicles whenever possible to help decrease pollution levels.

Indoor residential burning is also restricted on Friday in the metro area.

Although fire places won't be necessary on Friday with mild January weather expected along the urban corridor. High temperatures in the Denver area will come close to 60 degrees which is about 15 degrees warmer than normal for the final Friday in January. It will stay noticeably cooler over northern Colorado will temperatures struggling to reach the lower 50s around Fort Collins, Loveland, and Greeley after such as cold start Friday morning.

Elsewhere around the state, snow will slowly spread from the southwest mountains toward the I-70 mountain corridor by Friday night. Snow is likely in Summit County and across much of the high country into Saturday. Most ski areas will see 1-5 inches of snow but higher amounts are possible in the southwest including ski areas like Silverton and Wolf Creek.

Denver will miss the precipitation this weekend but it will turn cooler compared to Friday with highs closer to 50 degrees on Saturday and Sunday. It will also be windy at times on Saturday with northwest winds gusting up to 40 mph in the metro area.