UPDATE, Saturday, April 18, 2026, 9 AM MDT: The system delivered up to 6 inches across the Colorado foothills overnight, with Denver International Airport officially recording 3.5 inches, the city’s first snowfall in more than a month. A hard freeze is now hitting the Front Range Saturday morning, with temperatures dropping into the 20s across Cheyenne, Denver, and Colorado Springs.
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Up to two feet of snow and temperatures plunging 25 degrees below the mid-April average are slamming 11 western and northern states today, Friday April 17, 2026, as a late-season “cold storm” presses from the Cascades and Northern Rockies into Colorado and the Northern Plains. The Weather Prediction Center is headlining late-season snow for the Northern Rockies, Central Rockies, and Northern Plains, with mountain passes from Washington and Oregon east through Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado all in the impact zone through Friday night, plus snow and ice probabilities extending into North Dakota and northwest Minnesota…