A winter storm this week will bring rain to Cortez and Durango and snow to the San Juan Mountains, according to the National Weather Service.
The storm will hit Southwest Colorado about midnight and continue through noon Wednesday, said meteorologist Tom Renwick. After a lull Wednesday, snow will pick up Thursday evening and continue Friday morning, he said.
“It shows a strong signal and should bring quite a bit of moisture,” he said. “It is a two-pronged storm, with a low coming from the west then a shot of energy dropping in from the north.”
A winter weather advisory is in effect midnight Monday through noon Wednesday for the central mountains, San Juan Mountains, Rico, Telluride and Silverton.
“Travel could be very difficult; slow down and use caution while traveling,” the advisory states.
Southern and northern San Juan Mountains above 9,000 feet are expected to see 5 to 10 inches of new snow, with up to a foot on the higher peaks. Cortez is expected to see 0.4 inch of rain.
In Durango, a mix of rain and snow is expected Tuesday morning, turning to rain after 10 a.m. The storm is expected to taper off Wednesday, then return Thursday night, with snow early Friday morning and a low of 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
The moisture is coming just in time to relieve an unusually dry March, said Jim Andrus, Cortez weather observer for the National Weather Service.
For March, Cortez has seen just 0.31 inch of moisture at of Monday, or 37% of the normal 0.86 inch for the month.
Winter season snowfall (October through April) has tracked below normal in Cortez, with 24.3 inches as of March 28, or 78% of the normal March total of 30.9 inches.
“We need to do some catching up in order to fill our reservoirs,” Andrus said.
SNOTELs that measure snowpack for the Dolores River Basin, which feeds McPhee Reservoir, are at 93% of the 30-year average from 1990 to 2020.
Snowpack for the Animas Basin is 95% of average, and the San Juan River Basin is at 91% of average. Statewide, the snowpack is at 92%.
Wet slides from warm weather has boosted avalanche danger in the San Juan Mountains to “considerable,” Level 3 of a five-level scale, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
“Wet snow avalanche concerns remain throughout the Southern Mountains as a minimal freeze overnight or not at all allows water to continue moving down into buried weak layers,” according to the March 28 CAIC report.
