A blast of winter Friday sent the mercury plunging more than 40 degrees in hours and sent cars crashing on icy roads.

Although only trace amounts of snow fell Friday, it was enough to ice roads and create headaches for commuters. Police reported numerous car crashes in northeast Colorado Springs and the Tri-Lakes area.

"We're getting hammered," an El Paso County dispatcher said Friday morning, estimating she'd received about 10 calls of weather-related crashes in 20 minutes.

The temperature fell from a high of 71 Thursday afternoon to 30 degrees by 8 a.m. Friday. The high Friday was 39 degrees.

Thursday was unseasonably warm after Chinook winds coming down from the mountains took the chill out of the November air, said Jim Hall, spokesman for the National Weather Service in Pueblo.

But a cold front, fueled by snow fields and frigid prairies in Canada, brought that chill back - and them some.

Hall said Colorado Springs caught the coattails of a cold blast from a fast-moving storm moving from Canada to the Great Lakes.

The chilly air and snow followed the jet stream down.

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Contact the writer: 636-0198 or brian.newsome@gazette.com