It’s no April Fools joke – after weeks of sunny skies and above-average temperatures, Southwest Colorado is forecast to see rain, cooler temperatures and possibly more than a foot of snow in the mountains through Wednesday.
Arriving late Tuesday night and lingering through Wednesday evening, a two-part storm system will blow into Southwest Colorado, bringing chilly temperatures and precipitation, said Brianna Bealo, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.
“We’ve got some moisture from the north and from the south that’s combining ahead of the system,” Bealo said. “So we actually, for once, have some moisture to work with.”
Bealo said a dramatic cool down will occur with high temperatures for the Durango area dropping into the 50s Wednesday.
“We do actually get a fairly substantial cool down with this system,” Bealo said. “So (Wednesday will) be a raw kind of day with rain and cold.”
Additionally, snow is anticipated above 9,000 feet, Bealo said. The San Juan County Office of Emergency Management issued a winter weather advisory through 9 p.m. Wednesday, according to its Facebook page. The post said total snow accumulations between 6 and 12 inches with locally higher amounts are possible, and winds may gust up to 45 mph.
Bealo said that below 9,000 feet, anywhere from three-quarters of an inch to an inch of precipitation will fall. Additionally, some thunder and lightning may occur, though humidity will be high, which will keep wildfire danger low.
“The system is really wet, so even if we don’t get an excellent, amazing amount of actual physical precipitation, the humidities will be up, and that’s going to make wildfire starts a lot more difficult,” Bealo said.
Durango Fire Protection District Chief Randy Black agreed.
“It does not appear that this is a highly electrical storm,” Black said. “So it doesn’t look like we’ve got much lightning associated with this.”
Black said the rain and snow is much-needed ahead of a particularly worrisome wildfire season.
“Unfortunately, it really looks like we’re only scheduled for one day of moisture in Durango, which is tomorrow (Wednesday),” Black said. “The good news is there’s snow forecast above 9,000 feet. ... That’s a great thing to get some snowpack, which is desperately what we’re lacking right now.”
Once the first storm moves out of the area Wednesday night, Bealo said temperatures will warm up with highs returning to the 60s Thursday, but only before a second system arrives with another cool down. The second weather system will have less precipitation, but will cause low temperatures in Durango to drop into the 20s and high teens Friday and Saturday.
Bealo said the storms come as a stubborn ridge of high atmospheric pressure just off the California Coast – the root cause for Colorado’s remarkably hot, snowless winter – is finally breaking down.
“That big old high pressure that had been sitting over us for the last two, three weeks – it feels like it’s been forever – has finally broken down, and we’re kind of moving into this much more progressive pattern,” Bealo said.
The high pressure breakdown has allowed the jet stream to sink farther south, which in turn, has allowed moisture to move up through Southwest California and into the Four Corners, Bealo said.
Bealo said the one-month temperature and precipitation outlook for April shows a likelihood for above-average temperatures and below-average precipitation to return to Southwest Colorado. But, she said, this storm is a welcome, albeit temporary, pattern change.
“Something is better than nothing,” Bealo said.
sedmondson@durangoherald.com
