The song says “Baby, it’s cold outside,” but never gets right down to how cold it is. The low temperature Monday morning may be similarly amorphous, mostly because of permutations in record keeping.
The low early Monday was recorded at minus 20 at the Durango-La Plata County Airport, according to meteorologist Matt Aleksa with the Grand Junction office of the National Weather Service.
“I can’t say for certain it’s a record,” he said, adding that there have been two different recording sites in our area, one from 1894 to 1991, and a second from 1996 to 2013, so there’s no way to compare apples and apples. “You can say the lowest temperature we have recorded for this date is minus 14 degrees, and that this is a departure of 35 degrees from the date’s normal low, which is 15 degrees.”
The low temperatures are occurring because of an Arctic storm front that has moved into the area.
“It will be pretty cold at least through the week,” Aleksa said Monday afternoon. “Then it depends on whether the snow has melted or not. If it has, then it might warm up some.”
A small storm may come through the area on Friday and Saturday.
“But that’s looking less and less likely as it gets closer,” he said. “The mountains may get some, which is good for skiers, but probably not much.”
In the meantime, the predicted low overnight Tuesday was minus 4, with lows forecast to rise above zero Wednesday.
The highs, meanwhile, probably will stay below freezing until Saturday, when the forecast is for a high of a balmy 34 degrees.
The forecast leaves Durangoans asking the question: “Can you really call it a high if it’s only 22 degrees?” That’s Tuesday’s forecast high, according to the National Weather Service.
abutler@durangoherald.com
