Snow will continue off and on over the next few days around the southern San Juan Mountains, with the possibility of significant accumulations later in the week, according to the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.
“It’s going to be a kind of roller coaster ride throughout this week,” said meteorologist Dennis Phillips.
In the high country north of Durango, Phillips said models estimate about 4 to 7 inches of snow through Tuesday.
In town over that same time period, there could be 1 to 3 inches of snow, depending on temperatures. Phillips said daytime averages should linger in the mid- to upper-30s.
However, Phillips said a storm later in the week is expected to dump snow along the Interstate 70 corridor, and it could do the same for the southern San Juans as long as temperatures remain low.
“The models right now are struggling with those patterns, so it will be interesting to see how that pans out,” he said. “But luckily everyone will get snow by the time this is over.”
Phillips said just about all the monitoring stations in the southern San Juan Mountains are showing snowpack at levels above 100 percent of historic median averages.
Within the last 48 hours, Purgatory Resort has reported 3 inches of new snow, brining the season total to 93 inches. At Wolf Creek Ski area, there’s 6 new inches of snow from recent storms, with 156 inches reported for this season. Telluride Ski Resort is reporting 1 inch of new snow, a base depth of 36 inches and a total of 108 inches of snow this season.
jromeo@durangoherald.com
