Scattered thunderstorms that could bring a spring mix of rain and hail to lower elevations and snow above 9,000 feet are expected through Wednesday night.
Another small, quick-hitting front is expected to affect mostly northern Colorado on Saturday, but it brings a slight chance of snow to higher elevations in the San Juan Mountains, said Jimmy Fowler, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.
“You should see pop-up, scattered thunderstorms, and thick cloud cover will keep the temperatures down,” Fowler said of the system moving through Southwest Colorado on Wednesday.
Wednesday’s high is expected to come in at only 50 degrees, about 12 degrees below average for early April, he said. Highs should return to 60 degrees Thursday and remain in the low 60s through the weekend.
The system expected to move through Saturday could bring a slight chance of snow to the high country of the San Juan Mountains, but Fowler said the weather service does not anticipate it will bring precipitation to lower elevations of Southwest Colorado.
Silverton has a 20 percent chance of snow Saturday, according the weather service’s five-day forecast.
“We do have a couple of small, quick systems moving through,” he said.
An El Niño pattern, which favors above-average precipitation for Southwest Colorado in winter and spring, remains in effect, Fowler said.
The El Niño pattern has an 80 percent chance of continuing through spring and a 60 percent chance of continuing through summer, Fowler said.
Summer precipitation isn’t influenced by El Niño patterns. Instead, summer precipitation is driven more by the strength of the seasonal monsoon pattern, Fowler said.
The seasonal monsoon system normally begins around the Fourth of July in Southwest Colorado.
parmijo@durangoherald.com
