Accumulating snow and travel impact returns to Colorado Thursday through Monday with the highest impact coming to the mountains Friday and to the lower country, including the Denver area, Sunday.

A snowy system will begin to spread snow over the mountains Thursday into Friday, and sadly the wind will be quite strong also. Through Friday afternoon, the snowfall in the mountains will be climbing to more than a foot, and there will be travel difficulties due to wind up to and over 70 mph.

As we go into Saturday, you can see the snow continues to accumulate in the high country, not upwards of two feet for some. The wind still a factor but not as strong as Friday's.

Sunday into Monday morning we have snow that reaches the Front Range, metro areas, and plains:

This particular forecast (the GFS) shows more than two feet of snow in the mountains from the storm up to this point. There are areas of up to 6 inches of snow for the low country, including the Palmer Divide.

Other data are suggesting more snow for the plains and cities, so there's a more significant impact that bears watching as we approach the weekend.

The overall confidence levels in the snowfall as of the Wednesday data shown here on our Gamblers Chart for points within Denver, Fort Collins, Boulder, Colorado Springs, etc.

There is a high level of uncertainty with this setup due to jet stream position, duration, and moisture content for those east of the Continental Divide. Those factors will ultimately factor into the forecast as we get more specific in the days ahead.

Impacts

Anyone set to travel to the high country Friday through the weekend will need to pay attention to the road conditions, wind conditions, and any subsequent route closures.

Those in the metro areas will have some impact coming, mostly Sunday, as it appears now, but totals are still to determine the ultimate impact.