Colorado is set to see a freezing weekend as snow and a bitterly cold arctic blast of air moves into the state on Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

Wednesday and Thursday will be the last semi-warm days before temperatures begin to drop, NWS forecasters said.

Snow arrives Friday

Light snowfall will begin in Colorado’s mountains at about 11 a.m. Friday, move into the Front Range and Denver area in the afternoon and reach the Eastern Plains in the evening, according to NWS forecasters.

How much will stick is still up in the air, but several inches of dry, fluffy snow is expected, especially near the foothills, NWS forecasters said in a Hazardous Weather Outlook.

Other weather services, like AccuWeather, are calling for 4 to 8 inches of snow in Denver and its surrounding suburbs from Friday into Saturday.

Colorado’s mountains, including peaks as high as Mount Elbert and mountain towns like Estes Park, are expected to get 3 to 6 inches of snow this weekend, according to AccuWeather. The Eastern Plains are forecast to get 2 to 4 inches.

Overnight Friday, temperatures across the state will dip into single digits, NWS forecasters said.

Chilling Saturday temps signal first subzero weather in Denver for the season

Once temperatures start to drop Friday, they won’t come back up until Tuesday.

Saturday will mark Denver’s first chance for subzero temperatures of the season, according to NWS forecasters. Though the snow will wrap up at about 11 a.m., temperature highs won’t rise above the teens in the metro area and could fall to around minus 2 degrees overnight.

The Eastern Plains will see similar overnight temperature lows of minus 2, but “blustery” wind conditions could make it feel even colder, NWS forecasters said.

In the mountains, snow will continue to fall throughout the day and overnight Saturday, forecasters said. Temperatures will drop to minus 6 overnight before any windchill.

Northern Colorado, including Walden and Kremmling, will see temperatures as low as 13 degrees below zero overnight Saturday, according to NWS forecasters.

Snow, negative temps return Sunday

Snow will return to the Front Range and Eastern Plains on Sunday, but little to no new accumulation is expected, NWS forecasters said.

Most of the state will see temperature highs between 10 and 12 degrees on Sunday before dropping back into or near the negatives, forecasters said.

Denver will see a high of 11 degrees and overnight temperatures as low as minus 5 degrees, according to NWS forecasters. The Eastern Plains could be as cold as minus 10 degrees Sunday night and the mountains will see low temperatures between minus 1 and minus 8.

The cold could feel even worse with wind chill, forecasters said.

The western slope, including Delta and Cedaredge, will barely escape the weekend without temperatures going below zero. The area is forecast to scrape by with overnight lows near 1 degree.

Monday to be the coldest day of the weekend’s winter weather

The coldest day of the arctic blast will be Monday, where “highs may struggle to get much above zero,” NWS forecasters said.

“Low temperatures could reach minus 10 to minus 20 across the I-25 corridor and Eastern Plains with the lowest temperatures occurring Monday night,” forecasters said in a Hazardous Weather Outlook. “With breezy conditions, wind chill values may reach minus 30.”

Northern Colorado will be the coldest part of the state Monday. In Walden, temperatures will hover around 3 degrees during the day and drop to 25 degrees below zero overnight, forecasters said.

It won’t be quite as cold in the Denver area, but forecasters said the city will see temperature highs near 7 degrees and overnight lows of minus 12. Temperatures in the Eastern Plains and mountains could drop even lower, with overnight temperatures of 15 to 20 degrees below zero.

Temps begin to warm up Tuesday

Temperature highs will escape the teen and single-digit cage on Tuesday, warming up to 33 degrees in Denver and the mid-20s across the mountains and Eastern Plains.

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Originally Published: January 15, 2025 at 10:11 AM MST

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DENVER — The family of a pregnant woman whom police in Arvada, Colorado, shot and killed after they mistook her for a shoplifter has reached a $2 million settlement with the city, officials said Tuesday.

Destinee Thompson, a mother of three from Denver, was killed on Aug. 17, 2021, as she tried to drive away from officers who had surrounded her car as she was leaving an Arvada motel.

The lawsuit filed by Thompson’s family was settled in July and the settlement was announced this week, said Dave Snelling, a spokesman for the Arvada Police Department.

The shooting occurred as officers were searching for a Latina who had brandished a knife while she was stealing a cart full of merchandise from a Target store, according to the lawsuit filed in Denver County District Court.

The actual suspect, who also had stolen items from the store two days previously, had a chest tattoo and was wearing a white tank top, and she was believed to have gone to the motel, the lawsuit said.

Thompson, who was wearing a white tank top but did not have a chest tattoo, was leaving the motel to eat lunch as officers arrived, it said.

After Thompson got into her minivan, she was blocked in by a police vehicle and officers surrounded her, yelling and eventually shattering a passenger window, the lawsuit said.

Thompson was scared and tried to back out of the parking space before she drove over the curb and toward the road without posing a risk to officers, it said.

She drove about 25 yards before Arvada Police Officer Anthony Benallo fired eight shots, one of which killed Thompson and her unborn child, the suit said.

Neither Benallo nor the family’s attorney, Siddhartha Rathod, could be reached for comment. 

District Attorney Alexis D. King declined to press charges against officers in April 2022.

“I find that the officer’s use of deadly physical force was legally justified to defend himself and others from the threat posed,” King wrote in a statement.

Thompson’s father, Francis Thompson, said in 2023 that the police department tried to downplay the killing by waiting more than a year to release the incident report. 

“This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with,” he said. “I want justice. I don’t think it’s fair that the officers are still working without punishment.

“I wish I could tell her one more time that I love her, and I’ll never stop fighting for her. I’m not going to let go.”