Snowstorm in Colorado leads to dangerous driving conditions and broken branches, CDOT issues warning for Denver area

Snow will continue Thursday on the Eastern Plains for several more hours and could linger into the early afternoon. But the snow event is now over for the Denver metro area.

As expected, the southern foothills were the hardest hit area with more than foot of snow from Highway 285 up to Highway 119.

Denver's official total at Denver International Airport was 7.1 inches, which is the highest total from any storm so far this season. 

We've now received about 40% of our seasonal snowfall with our biggest snow months yet to come.

As the heavy snow was falling late Wednesday night in Thornton, some folks in Thornton came to the aid of a stuck driver off of 104th Avenue.

CBS News Colorado photographer Mark Neitro was there as the icy conditions made it very difficult to get the car unstuck.

And in very Colorado fashion, one of the folks helping out was wearing shorts.

CDOT warned drivers in Colorado to delay morning commutes on Thursday after the overnight snowfall impacted roads into the morning.  According to a CDOT press release, heavy, wet snow was impacting roads all over the state from the Denver metro area, the Front Range and along the I-70 mountain corridor. Conditions were also adverse out on the Eastern Plains.

CDOT says its crews have been plowing roads nonstop, but they remained slick on Thursday morning, so it was important to take it slow and leave plenty of following distance between other vehicles sharing the roadways, including staying safely behind plows as they work to make road conditions safer. 

It was also important to have the appropriate tires for the weather conditions on the road. 

On Thursday in particular, CDOT reported "extremely treacherous conditions" on US-285 between Conifer and Aspen.  

"CDOT has about 112 plows in Region 1 alone; that covers the Denver region and the I-70 mountain corridor from Golden to the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnel. More plows are out statewide," CDOT shared in its release.

CDOT crews were actively working on 12-hours shifts to work toward clearing the state roads after the snowfall to lessen impacts for drivers.

The heavy web snow that fell Wednesday night and Thursday morning in the Denver metro area damaged numerous trees.

Many residents after daybreak on Thursday morning were assessing damage from broken branches.

So far it doesn't appear there are many power outages

Well, we don't know if they were really enjoying the snow, but this was a pretty scene nonetheless in Coal Creek Canyon on Thursday morning.

Several businesses and government buildings delayed their openings on Thursday due to the heavy snowfall overnight. Here's the CBS News Colorado list, as of 8:30 a.m.

*Please note that there may be other closures and delays in place. Please check individual websites for more information.