Durango and Southwest Colorado could see some precipitation Saturday afternoon, but it might be the last of it the area sees for a while.

The National Weather Service gives Durango a 30% chance of precipitation Saturday. There is a chance of rain and snow showers before 3 p.m., then a chance of rain showers between 3 and 4 p.m., followed by a slight chance of rain and snow showers after 4 p.m. The forecast was otherwise partly sunny, with a high near 37 degrees and a northwest wind blowing around 5 mph, becoming southwest in the afternoon.

“There will just be some snow showers coming through probably this afternoon into the evening,” said Dennis Phillips, a senior meteorologist with the NWS office in Grand Junction. “Unfortunately, this is the only chance you’re going to get for a while.”

There’s a storm system about 10 days out, he said, but as with much of the past month and longer, the Pacific Northwest going to be absorbing the moisture that otherwise might have made its way to Southwestern Colorado, he said.

Mostly cloudy skies with near normal high temperatures across E UT and W CO today. Up to 3 inches of snow will fall over the mountains. pic.twitter.com/hmipXHLI8J

— NWS Grand Junction (@NWSGJT) January 9, 2021

If any more precipitation is on the way, we likely won’t see it for a week.

“Maybe by next weekend we’ll see something a little stronger come through. Lately, the model has been showing something strong that far out, but then by the time it gets here it’s like what we’ll see today,” Phillips said. “If we had some moisture with what is coming through today, it’d be a fairly good storm, but it’s just moisture-starved right now.”

Cortez’s forecast gave a 20% chance of snow showers before 11 a.m. with no precipitation following for the foreseeable future.

ngonzales@durangoherald.com