DENVER -- Snow flurries are expected throughout the weekend as the Aspen area, Vail and Steamboat Springs all reporting steady snow overnight Thursday. It was even snowling lightly in Denver.

A storm front packed nearly a foot of snow that swept across Colorado early Thursday, bringing bitter cold and blustery winds. Another storm was due to hit the state Friday afternoon.

Snow that some residents described as dark as chocolate brown was reported across parts of Colorado.

"It's pretty much statewide," said Ethan Greene, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. "We've had reports from the San Juans, Winter Park … all over."

The oddly-covered snow was the result of high winds that raked the state earlier in the week.

"Those winds picked up dust and sediment and kept them airborne over Colorado. Some of this dust settled out of the sky along with the fresh snowfall overnight, leaving the reddish-brown layer of snow that many woke up to on Thursday morning in Colorado's high country," said 7News Chief Meteorologist Mike Nelson.

Greene said it's not unusual to see plumes of reddish dust from the desert Southwest drop on the Rocky Mountains in the spring.

Exceptionally dry conditions in northern Arizona contributed to the dust, Greene said.