While Durango will see mostly rain with the possibility of a half-inch of snow accumulating Wednesday night, skiers can look forward to at least 10 to 20 inches of fresh powder.

The snow will begin falling in the San Juan Mountains tonight with the heaviest accumulation happening during the day Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.

“It’s another really potent slug of moisture coming in off the Pacific with this southwest flow, and yeah, it’s definitely another atmospheric river event delivering a lot of moisture and basically just ramming into the San Juan Mountains,” said Mark Miller, meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “So we are looking at quite a bit of snow up high, generally above 8,000 feet or so.”

While ski-mountain levels will see an expected 10 to 20 inches of snow through Wednesday, pockets higher in the mountains may accumulate as much as 2 to 3 feet, Miller said.

“But then yeah, as far as down in the valley (Durango area) not really expecting much in the way of snow,” Miller said. “It should be mostly rain with maybe snow kind of mixed in here or there, especially toward the end of the event Thursday morning.”

The storm will bring anywhere from a foot to 20 inches of snow to Silverton during the same time period.

The atmospheric river of moisture will slowly filter south and out of the area through Thursday, Miller said.

gjaros@durangoherald.com