Colorado Weather: Snow Is Back, Tough Mountain Travel Expected By Saturday Night

DENVER (CBS4) - We're tracking a cold front and a fast-moving storm system today in Colorado's Weather Center. It will bring snow back into the high country and it could be moderate to heavy at times tonight, especially along sections of the Interstate 70 mountain corridor.

The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for the northern and central mountains of Colorado in addition to part of the northern San Juans. Many locations above 9,000 feet in the advisory area will see 4-8 inches of snow and a few spots could get more.

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Outside of the advisory areas the rest of our mountain locations should see 4 inches or less on average over the next 24 hours, but this weather system will produce bands of snow and that means a lot of variation in totals, especially over short distances or changes in elevation.

To understand this, think about the summertime rain storms, and how much it can vary over short distances while driving down the road.

This weather system will also have some wind gusts as high as 25 to 30 mph at times and that could create localized areas of blowing snow, especially on higher mountain passes and exposed roadways.

The snow is excellent news for the statewide snowpack which has climbed about 10% since the first of February. While we still have widespread drought across Colorado we have seen a few pockets of slight improvement this month.