On the heels of one storm comes a persistent snowy pattern for the western U.S. that will drop more than three feet of snow on many mountain ranges, including here in Colorado.

The WPC forecast (set to the 50th percentile which symbolizes the most likely, median, totals) above indicates off the chart snowfall totals for California's Sierras, parts of Utah, and Colorado's San Juan Mountains. And, this is just through Friday. The northern Rockies from Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, into Canada will have a couple of feet, at least, of snowfall.

Perhaps to a traveler's dismay comes a series of storm systems across the country throughout Thanksgiving week.

Here's an animation that shows snowfall as it progresses across the US this week.

Let's progress through a few instances to see potential impact on Colorado.

Above, the next system to impact Colorado arrives late Wednesday through Thursday. The snapshot is for 5 am Thursday morning and shows snow over southern Colorado, rain and snow in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and some pockets of rain and snow from Arizona and California north to Canada.

Watch what happens to the area by Friday evening at 5 pm:

Above, we see a much stronger system centered over northeastern Colorado spreading rain and snow over several states. As this system develops Thursday into Friday Colorado's mountains will have very heavy snowfall and a chance for the metro areas, including Denver and Colorado Springs, to have some snow. Right now rain and snow chances across the plains look minimal, but given the holiday week we will be keep a close eye on these impacts. Certainly plan on winter driving conditions in the mountains, as well as gusty winds and perhaps some rain and snow across Eastern Colorado.

This particular system clears Colorado by Saturday. Shown here is Saturday night as the storm moves well east. Also note, another system impacts the west coast by the weekend.

So, for Colorado we are looking at the following snowfall total Tuesday evening through Saturday morning, with more snow for the mountains through Saturday. One scenario of that is this projection, note the incredible snowfall over the southwestern mountains –– more than three feet!

Certainly, travel impacts will be around the state through the week, mainly in the mountains.

For Denver, we have cool late fall weather. Below an hourly planner to get you through the next three days. A slow warming trend, with that chance of showers back in the forecast by Friday afternoon as the next storm system moves through. For now, just about a 30% chance of rain and snow in Denver on Friday. Colorado Springs to Fort Collins the outlook is similar, a chance of showers and gusty winds for Friday.