The arctic blast has moved on, after dumping several inches of snow in the metro region and several feet in the High Country, but the foothills remain under a winter weather advisory tonight.
Wind gusts up to 60 mph could create intense blowing snow and white-out conditions above 6,000 feet, where there is still a 20 percent chance of snow tonight, according to the National Weather Service office in Boulder.
Wednesday’s high in Denver is expected to reach 38, warming into the upper 40s by Friday and through the weekend and into the mid-50s by the beginning of next week, according to the extended forecast.
The mountains could continue to add to their ample snowpack with snow chances around 50 percent the rest of the week, with daily high temperatures in the 20s and overnight lows in the single digits, according to the National Weather Service.
Since Friday, Crested Butte has received 41.5 inches of snow for Colorado’s new accumulation, followed by Walden in Jackson County with 24.5 inches, according to the Western Service.
Monday’s storm left 6 inches in Denver and two inches in Boulder.
The state’s snowpack is at 120 percent of its 30-year average. The recent storm pushed the South Platte River basin, which includes Denver and northeast Colorado, above-average for the first time this season, with 105 percent of its typical snowfall.
Southern Colorado is at about 130 percent of average, and northwest Colorado is at 114 percent. The Colorado River basin, roughly along Interstate 70, is at 124 percent of average, according to the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service, which measures snowfall accumulation.
Colorado gets more than 80 percent of its year-round water supply from snowmelt that collects in reservoirs in the spring. The rest comes from aquifers and relatively scant rainfall.
