Weather forecasters warn of possible treacherous driving conditions early Friday morning after the first winter storm left icy roads and a small layer of snow in the Denver metro area.
Sunshine will eventually melt the ice off of the roads, but the commute Friday morning could be tricky, according to Kari Bowen, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Boulder.
“It might be a little bit icy especially on bridges,” Bowen said. “People need to be aware of that and drive carefully.”
During the snowstorm Thursday there were numerous accidents reported across the state including .
In the mountains, 7 inches of snow was reported at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area and Loveland, 6 inches fell at Copper Mountain Resort and 5 at Keystone.
A total of 1.7 inches of snow fell at Denver International Airport, the official weather station for the city of Denver.
Despite the sunshine, northwest winds gusting up to 16 mph will keep temperatures down in the 30s. The high will be around 37 degrees, according to the NWS.
The temperature will drop to about 16 degrees Friday night.
“It will get chilly,” Bowen said.
The weather will warm up over the sunny weekend with highs of 52 on Saturday and 64 on Sunday, the NWS predicts.
“We’re going to get back to above-normal temperatures for this time of year,” Bowen said.
The low Saturday night will be around 31 degrees.
It will be sunny with a high of 60 on Monday.
But early Tuesday morning there is a chance of rain and snow, which could complicate Thanksgiving travel plans.
Although it will be mostly cloudy on Tuesday, the high will be around 51 degrees, the NWS predicts.
It gets even warmer on Wednesday and Thursday, or Thanksgiving, when temperatures will rise to the mid-50s to upper 50s.
