Snow reaches the northwest metro first, off the foothills, and Clear Creek's cottonwoods go white while downtown is still dry pavement. Northwest Services runs that side of Denver, plowing, shoveling, opening driveways and walkways, clearing lots and knocking ice down before it can set. Up around Crown Hill the wind scours some slabs bare and buries others knee-deep in the very same storm. You learn the properties, and then you learn where each one drifts. Evening storms are the honest ones, finished under the lights, on the drive home past the yard you just cleared.