There’s a superb probability Colorado drivers touring for Christmas will encounter slick roads this weekend, with snow forecasts starting from a couple of inches alongside the Entrance Vary to greater than 18 inches within the southern mountains, in keeping with the Nationwide Climate Service.
Colorado Division of Transportation highway crews predict visitors ranges just like a standard winter weekend, mentioned spokesperson Jared Fiel, and are planning to be out on the roads by way of Sunday.
“It’s wanting prefer it’s going to be hitting the southern mountains a little bit bit extra, and up round right here it’s wanting like a comparatively regular winter storm – however we haven’t had a variety of these this yr, so we are going to take no matter snow they can provide us,” Fiel mentioned.
There’s sometimes little or no visitors on Christmas Day, Fiel mentioned, and CDOT staggers crew schedules so that everybody has time at house with their household on the vacation.
A visitors forecast from the Interstate 70 Coalition advises drivers to anticipate congestion on westbound I-70 on Friday night time and Saturday till midday, whereas eastbound vacationers can anticipate heavy visitors within the afternoon and early night on Saturday and Sunday.
The Nationwide Climate Service’s Boulder workplace issued a hazardous climate outlook for northeast and north central Colorado for a storm that’s anticipated to convey snow to the mountains and a mixture of rain and snow to the plains by Saturday afternoon.
The quantity of snow that may accumulate remains to be unclear, it ought to be sufficient to create slick driving situations Saturday night time by way of Monday, in keeping with the company.
A winter storm shifting into western Colorado is anticipated to convey 4 to eight inches of snow within the central and northern mountains and eight to 16 inches within the southern mountains, according to the National Weather Service’s Grand Junction office. Eighteen inches of snow or extra are doable on south-facing slopes in southern Colorado.
AAA is forecasting a document variety of vacation vacationers, mentioned spokesperson Skyler McKinley, with 115.2 million anticipated to journey greater than 50 miles from Saturday by way of Jan. 1. That’s the second-highest variety of vacation vacationers AAA has recorded, second solely to 2019.
AAA expects to answer 10,000 calls in Colorado over a 10-day vacation interval, most of that are for lifeless batteries, flat tires and folks locking their keys of their automobile, McKinley mentioned.
“These are sometimes issues you’ll be able to look forward and verify on earlier than you go,” he mentioned.
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