Denver Weather: Major Storm Heading For Colorado

A possibly historic storm is looming just off to our west. This will start moving toward Colorado on Friday afternoon, bringing it right over the Four Corners area. We'll also be pulling in moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, a very warm and moisture filled area. This will keep that snow pumping right at us until the low moves out on Sunday night and Monday.

Ahead of the snow, Friday looks to be a fairly dry day. We'll have a few snow showers in the high country and possibly a little rain or drizzle in Denver in the afternoon. Snow will start to pick up for the mountains on Friday night, but not until Saturday morning for the Front Range.

It may take a bit to really get going for the Front Range until Saturday early afternoon. Once it does, it's possible to get snow rates as fast as 1 to 2 inches an hour for the Front Range and 3" an hour for the foothills.

We have numerous Winter Storm Warnings and Winter Storm Watches in place for the high country, foothills, and Front Range.

The snow will most likely taper on Sunday night, so we could possibly see 36 hours of heavy snow in all of these areas. We will be windy on and off on Saturday, but stronger wind is possible on Sunday. Travel may be near impossible or impossible at times this weekend. Once the snow gets going, it's a good idea to stay hunkered down at home.

This will be wet, heavy, spring snow. Warmer temperatures near freezing mean this will be some thick snow. Potential liquid amounts could be anywhere from 1.5 inches to 3 inches. This would be great for our drought, but it won't be great for shoveling. If possible, you may want to shovel a few times to keep it clear and help your back.

Be careful this weekend. This could be the most snow we've seen in almost ten years. It is very rare to get a snow storm that could get us close to two feet. Only three times in Denver's history have we had storms with more than 24 inches of snow. The most recent being the big storm in March of 2003.