After a prolonged dry spell this fall in Colorado’s High Country, which saw only brief rainfall, the first major snowstorm of the season is heading this way.

From Thursday evening through late Saturday, Colorado’s central mountain region could see up to a foot of snow accumulate in high elevation areas, with snowfall possible as high as 8,000 feet.

“It’s been months since there’s been a storm system at our latitude,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Paul Schlatter. “The good thing for the mountains is that once the storm system approaches Colorado, it slows down and parks itself.”

Schlatter said snowfall should be fairly consistent throughout Thursday and Saturday, with Saturday morning seeing the peak of activity for what he called “the most significant precipitation event yet this fall.”

Daytime high temperatures could only reach into the 40s in valley areas. Snow and ice may be present Saturday morning on mountain passes and even near the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels.

“But other than Saturday morning, we don’t think the roads will be anything more than wet,” Schlatter said.

While several inches of snow accumulation are possible in urban areas, Schlatter said most of the snow will develop “well above 30,000 and 10,000 feet.”

Because the storm system is mainly concentrated around the Four Corners region, Schlatter said the most snowfall is expected to occur in the San Juan Range and Wolf Creek Pass, which will “absolutely be affected.”

Central mountain areas like Summit and Eagle counties could see about a foot of snow before the end of the week, while Pitkin County could see closer to 4-8 inches, Schlatter said. Northern Colorado, including Steamboat, is expected to see significantly less snow, with several inches possible at the highest elevations.

Precipitation is still possible on Sunday, but Monday will be drier and warmer. Daytime temperatures are expected to rise again later that week to highs in the 50s and 60s.

Looking further ahead, the Climate Prediction Center shows that Colorado has an equal chance of seeing above or below normal temperatures and precipitation during the last weeks of October and the first week of November.

In a blog post from Monday, October 14 on OpenSnow.com, founding meteorologist Joel Gratz wrote that there is a “fairly high chance of additional storms” before the end of October.

“We could see some showers and cool air moving in from October 20 to 22 (depending on the track of the storm from October 18 to 20), and then the signal is that another storm will occur sometime around the weekend of October 26 to 27 arrive. Gratz wrote.

However, the forecast center’s quarterly forecast shows a slightly increased chance that the state will have above-average temperatures and below-average precipitation through December.

That’s to be expected with the transition to a La Nina winter, which refers to a weather pattern generally characterized by steeper, cooler weather in the north and drier, warmer weather in the south. Despite a warmer and drier start, La Nina patterns have produced strong snowfall during the core of the winter season in recent years.

“La Nina years can often hit our central and northern mountains quite well,” Schlatter said.

This week’s approaching storm could be a turning point for the fall season, which so far has been mired in mostly above-average, dry temperatures, Schlatter said.

“It’s been a very persistent ridge of high pressure over the western U.S., keeping us warm and dry and putting the storm track along the Canadian border,” he said. “Hopefully this marks the end of that stubborn ridge… sometimes it takes a good storm like this to change the weather pattern over the US”