Dealing with snow-damaged trees Check for hazards: Before approaching a tree, examine your surroundings to avoid making contact with downed utility lines or standing under broken, hanging branches. Contact city officials if necessary: Trees between the street and a city sidewalk may be the responsibility of city crews. Assess damage: If a tree is healthy and still possesses its main upward branch, most major limbs and 50 percent or more of its crown, the chance is good for a complete recovery. Be careful knocking snow off branches: Gently push up on branches from below to prevent adding additional stress. Remove broken branches: This minimizes the risk of decay and insects or diseases entering the wound. Prune at the branch collar — the point where a branch joins a larger one. Don’t over-prune: With the loss of some branches, a tree may look unbalanced, but most trees quickly grow new foliage that hides bare areas. Don’t try to do it all yourself: If work entails using a chainsaw overhead, sawing from a ladder or removing large branches or entire trees, contact an insured, certified arborist. Source: Colorado State Forest Service

What forecasters are terming a classic spring snow event is shaping up to impact Boulder County and the rest of the Front Range, with a good chance for at least half a foot of snow falling before it tapers off mid-day Saturday.

National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Kalina said 6 to 12 inches of snow could be delivered by the wintry blast. The weather service has issued a winter storm warning from 6 p.m. Friday to 6 p.m. Saturday.

A hard freeze for the area is possible Sunday morning.

“It’s probably going to be closer to 6 (inches), but we have the potential for more,” Kalina said. “We’ve got an upper-level low pressure forming over the Four Corners region, and it is forecast to track across central New Mexico. That is pretty classic around here, for springtime.”

Impact to roadways will depend on how much falls and how quickly, Kalina said, but recent mild temperatures likely were expected to cause the snow on streets to mostly turn to slush.

“Probably the biggest impact with this would be to the trees, the ones that have leafed out,” Kalina said. “It is going to be a pretty wet, so broken tree limbs are possible, with some power outages around in certain places.

“And also, Saturday night looks like it could get down to the 20s. Pretty cold for the plants, so probably the biggest impact will be to the vegetation.”

As the clouds built up over the area Friday, customers were peppering the staff at gardening retailers such as The Flower Bin in Longmont and Sturtz & Copeland in Boulder with questions about how to prepare.

“That’s a lot of the conversation, right now, this morning,” The Flower Bin’s hardgoods manager Michael Morris said Friday. “A lot of conversations with customers, giving them advice on what to do.”

Tips were being dispensed including the importance of wrapping small trees with cloth, not plastic, and the use of small supports for a cloth that is placed over tender plants that are in the ground.

“With any kind of material, a sheet, insulate, anything you choose to cover, it’s important to have a structure in place so it doesn’t crush them under the weight of the snow,” Morris said. “Otherwise, you throw that frost cloth over it with the best of intentions, and then it gets cold and snows and it gets heavy and it does more damage than if you just left it alone.”

At Sturtz & Copeland, manager Connie Smith said, “Every other person that comes in is mostly asking what we’re planning to do with our things, and thereby learning what they might do with theirs.”

“It’s a mixture of things. We’re covering some things, we’re moving other things inside, and many things we’re laying under the benches so that they don’t get crushed underneath the snow.”

As for trees, she said, “As often as they can get out and knock snow off any limbs that they can reach, that will make a difference.”

The bright side, Smith added, is that, “The moisture is going to be fantastic.”

Boulder meteorologist Matt Kelsch said that Boulder’s 30-year average through 2016 for the entire winter season is 93.2 inches of snow, and that the average total snowfall for April is 13.7 inches.

Through Friday, Boulder has seen just 57.7 inches of snow this season, with 11.7 inches of that falling in April.

The official “climate day” for Boulder begins at 6 p.m., meaning that any snow falling after 6 p.m. Friday is credited to April 29, for record-keeping purposes. Boulder’s record snowfall for April 29 is 8.5 inches, which was recorded in 2005.

The average total snowfall for the month of April in Longmont over the last 14 years is 3.54 inches, according to Longmont weather observer Don Lewis.

He said in April 2005 Longmont recorded 14.9 inches for the month, and April 2013 registered 13 inches. In both 2007 and 2012, no snow fell at all in Longmont during April, Lewis said.

Charlie Brennan: 303-473-1327, brennanc@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/chasbrennan