Durango stared down possible record-setting warm temperatures Thursday on Christmas Day, and it wasn’t the only Colorado locale to do so, according to the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.
Conditions made for an uncharacteristically wet and warm holiday.
Kate Abbott, meteorologist for the NWS Grand Junction office, said the warmest temperature on Dec. 25 recorded at Durango-La Plata County Airport dating back to 1966 was 55 degrees in 1996.
In 2005, the high temperature for Dec. 25 was 53 degrees. In 2017, the high temperature was 52 degrees, she said.
She said Thursday’s high temperature forecast was 53 degrees.
Denver was forecast earlier this week to have the warmest Christmas on record. Abbott said the Mile High City’s previous warmest record for Dec. 25 was 69, set in 2005, and Thursday’s forecast was set to match it.
She said Boulder had a record-setting high temperature for Dec. 24 on Wednesday. Grand Junction had reached a high temperature of 59 degrees around 3 a.m. Thursday, and its current record-high temperature for the date is 60 degrees.
While surveying Colorado Department of Transportation camera feeds on U.S. Highway 550, she said the NWS Grand Junction office had received reports of snowfall at elevations above 9,000 feet, but there was little evidence of accumulation above about 2 inches.
“There might be up to an inch or two, but from what we’re seeing, that might be a little generous,” she said.
A trace of snow was reported 7 miles northeast of Pagosa Springs.
A Wolf Creek Pass station reported about 0.013 inches of precipitation as of 10 a.m. Thursday – about an inch of snow was forecast for the rest of the day. Abbott said up to an inch of snow had accumulated along the highway, but nothing was sticking to the pavement.
“39 and rain. Awful,” Jimmy Keene II, a Silverton resident, said. “Skipping Purg today. It must be miserable there (in Durango).”
According to Purgatory Resort’s online weather report, conditions were rainy and snowy Saturday afternoon, although zero snowfall or accumulation had been reported within the past 24 hours. Base snow depth was reported at 14 inches.
Pedestrians on Main Avenue – mainly tourists hoping for a snowy holiday getaway from warmer states – had mixed feelings about mostly rainy and warm weather.
Jill Jones and Greg Osenga, who were visiting from Santa Fe, said Durango weather seemed similar to conditions back home.
“But what a gorgeous town,” she said.
Osenga added it was their first time staying in Durango but not their first time passing through.
Jones said she heard the Strater Hotel is haunted, and that’s why she chose to stay there.
Two families from Texas said they were hoping for snow for the holidays, but they are enjoying their time in town regardless.
The ingredients needed for a white Christmas in Durango included the moisture, but the cold air was missing.
“The system we had move in was mainly a big push of moisture from the atmospheric rivers that have been plaguing the West Coast here for the last few days,” Abbott said.
The moisture made its way into the Four Corners but didn’t have enough drive to create snowfall.
The storm’s moisture content was 250% to 300% of normal – a “very moist air mass,” she said – but it’s also been an unseasonably warm air mass.
“We weren’t able to convert it into snow due to those warm temperatures,” she said. “Systems like this are usually what bring us good mountain snows to the southern mountains in wintertime. A few degrees the other direction could have made a big difference.”
Abbott said the moisture – snow or rain – is still good for the area given the drought conditions that have persisted through the fall and into early winter.
“Temperature is so important in winter,” she said. “A degree or two can completely change the outcome of the system.”
Southwesterly flow over the region is sucking in warmer air from the southwest, she said. The moisture was delivered, but there was no cooler air accompanying it, and thus no snow.
“We finally get a nice push of cold air coming in late Friday into Saturday, and so that could bring some snowfall to most of the area mountains,” Abbott said. “Unfortunately for you guys down south, it’s going to favor more the northern and central Colorado mountains.”
Four to 6 inches of snow is projected to fall in Southwest Colorado – mostly above 9,000 to 10,000 feet on Saturday – with some light snow continuing on Sunday and tapering off that evening, she said.
Monday through Wednesday is forecast to be dry again.
Abbott said the tropical Pacific is stuck in a weak La Nina cycle, which favors warmer and drier winters in the Four Corners. Conditions could change, she said, but the near-term climate outlook for the next couple of weeks entails above-normal temperatures and above-normal precipitation.
That doesn’t necessarily mean it will snow – but it does mean more moisture is possible, she said.
cburney@durangoherald.com
