A small snow-producing system is expected to move through Southwest Colorado Sunday night and Monday morning with a stronger system likely to come through Thursday and lingering into Friday.
“We have a weak upper-level disturbance moving through tonight. It will be out of here by midday Monday. It will increase the chance of snow certainly over the mountains, and Durango has a chance to see a dusting,” said Ben Moyer, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.
Durango could see up to an inch from the system by Monday morning, but Cortez is likely to see no snow or only a dusting, Moyer said. Pagosa Springs could see as much as 2 inches.
In the San Juan Mountains, Moyer expects between 3 and 6 inches of snow accumulation, with favored peaks seeing up to 1 foot.
In Silverton, the weather service’s five-day forecast calls for 2 inches Sunday night and another 3 inches Monday. In Telluride, the forecast calls for 1 inch Sunday night and up to 3 inches Monday. On Wolf Creek Pass, the forecast estimates 4 inches Sunday night and between 3 and 7 inches by Monday.
Lows on Monday night are expected to drop to the single digits in the mountain towns and in Durango and Cortez the low is expected to drop to 13. Monday night’s low in Pagosa Springs is expected to drop to 8 degrees.
According to a NWS hazardous weather outlook, travel conditions are likely to be compromised Sunday night and Monday morning.
The storm is coming from the Pacific Northwest, and the same pattern is expected to repeat itself on Thursday, when Moyer said the region will next see a chance of snow.
The system on Thursday is expected to be stronger than the system coming in Sunday night, and could liner into Friday, Moyer said.
On Jan. 12, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s SNOTEL map for Colorado, the Animas, Dolores, San Juan and San Miguel river basins have 116% of the 30-year average snowpack.
parmijo@durangoherald.com
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Herald Staff
