Denver residents face temperatures topping 60 degrees Friday while prodigious powder dumps are expected across western Colorado’s mountains, according to the National Weather Service.

Low clouds hung over the Front Range with fog floating down over Interstate 25 and high plains areas early Friday with generally mild, dry conditions on most roads.

Temperatures in metro Denver Friday are expected to reach a high of 63 degrees, weather service forecasters said.

More than a foot of snow was expected in the northern mountains, with blowing snow snarling roads. The weather service warned of hazardous driving conditions and issued winter weather warnings covering most of the western half of the state through Saturday.

Over the weekend, light snow and rain, creating wet and slushy conditions, are likely across metro Denver and other cities along the Front Range.

The Colorado Avalanche Information Center posted “avalanche watch” alerts warning of very dangerous avalanche conditions developing by midday Saturday and continuing through Sunday in the mountains. “Natural and human-triggered avalanches are very likely,” the center’s forecasters wrote.

The heavy snow — forecasts in some areas called for as much as two feet — may help boost Colorado’s closely-watched mountain snowpack that determines water availability through summer for cities and agriculture.