Colorado weather: Feet of snow for the mountains, Denver will see heavy rain

A dramatic weather change is imminent in Colorado. Tuesday brings a powerful system of humidity to our state. Heavy snow will fall on the mountains and foothills all day long. Many western mountains get 8 to 14 inches of snow. The winter weather advisory is in effect until Wednesday morning.

The mountains in the front range and some of their foothills are also hit by heavy snowfall. Winter storm warnings begin Tuesday and run through Wednesday afternoon.

Most of the hills and mountains saw 8 to 16 inches of snow cover, but some higher elevation areas in Park and Clear Creek counties saw up to 2 feet of snow cover.

The Denver area and plains should mostly stay on the rainy side. Heavy rain is expected in the late afternoon and early evening. The hard part to predict is whether the rain will turn to snow in the Denver area from Tuesday night through Wednesday morning. We may get too warm for that to happen. Switching to snow can result in several inches of wet snow. If not, it will continue to rain until early Wednesday morning, before it rains significantly by noon Wednesday.

By Wednesday afternoon, most of the humidity has moved to southeastern Colorado, clearing Thursday.