Durango and La Plata County residents are being advised to cover outdoor plants and leave sink faucets dripping before bed Thursday evening, due to a freeze warning issued by the National Weather Service office in Grand Junction.
Temperatures in La Plata, Archuleta and Montezuma counties are forecast to drop to below the freezing threshold Thursday night into Friday morning. The freeze warning is in effect from 9 p.m. Thursday to 9 a.m. Friday.
An NWS hazardous weather report says the predicted low overnight temperature in Durango is 26 degrees, but an hour-by-hour forecast says temperatures could sink to 25 degrees by 5 a.m. Friday.
Durango area temperatures have fallen as low as 32 degrees this fall, but Thursday night is expected to mark the first hard freeze of the season, NWS Grand Junction meteorologist Lucas Boyer said.
The freeze is being delivered by a short-lived cold front, with temperatures expected to rise again Saturday through midweek next week thanks to high pressure anticipated to build over the Great Basin and across the Rocky Mountains, he said.
“That high pressure is just going to continue to strengthen through the … beginning of the week,” he said.
He said the brief warm up, which entails high temperatures reaching into the 70s this upcoming Tuesday, could bring with it chances of light rain or drizzle, although early indications make that seem unlikely. Another cold front could occur this upcoming Wednesday.
A NWS hazardous weather outlook described the impending freeze as part of an early season winter storm impacting Northwest, Southwest and West central Colorado.
Northern and central Colorado communities above 8,500 feet in elevation may see “significant early season snowfall,” and snow is possible below 7,000 feet across Northwest Colorado.
Although no early snow is forecast for the Durango area, the weather outlook says “widespread freezing temperatures are possible and may bring a season ending hard freeze to most of western Colorado`s valleys Friday morning.”
The reported winter storm may be early, but La Plata County’s first autumn freeze is pretty much on schedule, Boyer said.
“We're moving through our fall pattern where we're going to have, you know, some fronts coming through as we kind of get set up for winter here,” he said.
According to weather data collected at Durango-La Plata County Airport dating back to the late 1990s, the first fall freeze sets in on Sept. 27 on average.
“(The DRO weather data is) a decent indication in the modern era of what we can expect for early freeze and light freezing,” Boyer said.
He said the NWS recommends people cover outdoor plants with light blankets or tarps, or bring them inside if feasible, and they should let faucets drip to keep water flowing and avoid frozen pipes.
cburney@durangoherald.com
