A massive arctic front pushed into Colorado on Saturday night, muscling aside unseasonably high temperatures earlier in the day.
The front, stretching from northern Arizona to the Great Lakes region, dropped heavy snow in the mountains and forced multiple road closures.
Carl Burroughs, a weather technician at the National Weather Service office in Boulder, said mountain areas could expect blizzard conditions with up to 16 inches of snow.
Front Range areas were expected to get between 1 to 6 inches of snow and a cold snap that lasts through at least Wednesday.
The Colorado Department of Transportation closed U.S. 6 at Loveland Pass and required chains on commercial vehicles on Interstate 70 at the Eisenhower Tunnel on Saturday night.
U.S. 40 from Craig to Blue Mountain, Colorado 64 west of Rangely, Colorado 13 between Rifle and Meeker, and U.S. 287 between Ted’s Place and Laramie also were closed.
Cheyenne experienced a drop in temperatures from 42 degrees to 8 degrees within two hours Saturday night, Burroughs said.
A shift in the wind after 10 p.m. was expected to usher in sharp drops in temperature along the Front Range, erasing Saturday’s high temperature of 58 degrees for Denver.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com
