The heaviest snowfall to hit the Colorado high country so far this weekend, with possible accumulations of up to 30 centimeters in the central mountains

After a prolonged dry spell this fall in the Colorado high country that saw only short-lived bursts of precipitation, the season's first major snowstorm is heading this way.

From Thursday evening into late Saturday, Colorado's central mountain region could see up to a foot of snow accumulation in high elevation areas, with snowfall possible as low as 8,000 feet.

“It has been months since a storm system reached our latitude,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Paul Schlatter. “The good thing for the mountains is that as the storm system approaches Colorado, it kind of slows down and winds down on its own.”

Schlatter said snowfall is expected to be fairly consistent throughout Thursday and Saturday, with activity peaking Saturday morning for what he called “the most significant precipitation event so far this fall.”

The maximum daily temperatures could only reach the 40s in valley areas. Snow and ice could occur on mountain passes and even near the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels Saturday morning.

“But other than Saturday morning, we don’t expect the roads to be anything other than wet,” Schlatter said.

While several inches of snow accumulation is possible in urban areas, Schlatter said the bulk of the snow will develop “well above 9,000 and 10,000 feet.”

With the storm system primarily focused on the Four Corners region, Schlatter said most of the snowfall is expected to fall in the San Juan Range and Wolf Creek Pass, which will be “absolutely flooded.”

Central mountain regions like Summit and Eagle Counties could see about a foot of snow by the end of the week, while Pitkin County could see closer to 4 to 8 inches, Schlatter said. Northern Colorado, including Steamboat, is expected to see significantly less snowfall, with several inches of snowfall possible at the highest points.

Rainfall will still occur on Sunday, but the weather will become drier and warmer on Monday, and daytime temperatures are expected to reach highs in the 50s and 60s again later in the week.

The Climate Prediction Center looks further into the future shows that Colorado has equal chances of experiencing above- or below-average temperatures and precipitation during the last weeks of October and the first week of November.

In a blog post from Monday, October 14th On OpenSnow.com, founding meteorologist Joel Gratz wrote that there was a “fairly high chance of additional storms” before the end of October.

“From October 20th to 22nd we may see some showers and cool air (depending on the path of the storm from October 18th to 20th), and then the signal suggests that sometime over the weekend of October 26th to 27th another storm is coming. “Gratz wrote.

However, the forecast center's three-month forecast shows a slightly increased likelihood that the state will have above-average temperatures and below-average precipitation through December.

This is expected with the transition into a La Nina winter, which refers to a weather pattern generally characterized by steeper, cooler weather in the north and drier, warmer weather in the south. Despite a warmer and drier start, La Nina patterns have produced heavy snowfall in the core of the winter season in recent years.

“La Nina years can often hit our central and northern mountains pretty well,” Schlatter said.

This week's approaching storm could be a turning point for the fall season, which has so far been characterized by mostly above-average, dry temperatures, Schlatter said.

“It's a really stubborn ridge of high pressure over the western U.S. that's keeping us warm and dry and laying the storm track along the Canadian border,” he said. “Hopefully it means the end of this really stubborn ridge…sometimes it takes a strong storm like this to change the weather pattern over the US.”