Early morning showers brought rain to Durango and Cortez and flurries of wet snow in the high country Sunday morning.
Lower temperatures are expected throughout the next 10 days, and there is a chance of snow again Wednesday at around 8,000 feet elevation. As of noon Sunday, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center reported about 5 inches of snow at Molas Lake and 4 inches of snow on Spud Mountain. A SNOTEL device in Mancos reported close to 3 inches of snow as of 10 a.m. Sunday.
Cortez received light rain and strong winds. Wind speeds topped 35 mph at Cortez Municipal Airport, and gusts reached 52 mph at 4:40 a.m., according to the National Weather Service office in Grand Junction. A freeze warning was issued for Monday and Tuesday mornings.
As of noon Sunday, National Weather Service had not received snow reports near Purgatory Resort, but snow-forecast.com reported Purgatory received around 1.6 inches of snow from Saturday night to Sunday morning.
Meteorologist Jeff Colton was optimistic about snowfall again Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.
“It'll favor more of the Northwest San Juan Mountains. It won't be as widespread as Sunday’s storm,” Colton said. “At least that's what we're seeing right now. Things can change, but the best potential will be from Silverton and north of there.”
NWS reported around an inch of snow in Silverton as of noon Sunday.
The storm provided a fair amount of rain in the area. Durango Hermosa received nearly a half-inch in the early morning Sunday, and Durango, about a quarter-inch. Cortez got about 0.2 inches, and Pagosa Springs reported between 0.25 and 0.5 inches.
“This is typically what we see as we move into late October. We start to see these specific storms moving across the Northern Rockies and then they dive down across the Great Basin and bring us shots of colder air,” Colton said.
The seven-day forecast shows a high temperature for the week at 57 degrees and the low of 21 degrees in Durango. In Cortez, the high will be 55 degrees with a low of 20 degrees. The forecast does show a chance for snow in Cortez on Wednesday night into Thursday afternoon.
“What we’re seeing right now is it’s staying pretty chilly and cooling back down to more seasonal temperatures for this time of year,” Colton said. said.
tbrown@durangoherald.com
