Two winter storms expected to slam into Durango in the past few days split and puttered through the region, a weather pattern that could repeat for a storm later this week.
The past two storm systems forecast to dump dozens of inches of snow across the San Juan Mountains did not quite reach Durango as expected – a natural and common disturbance in the systems split the storms and sent most of the snow to New Mexico, said Chris Cuoco, a meteorologists with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.
“The northern half of the storm is starved for energy and doesn’t dump much snow,” Cuoco said.
West of Durango did see some snow flurries, with up to 8 inches dropping in the foothills north of Cortez on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, Cuoco said. Durango, however, was spared. Mancos received 5 inches from the system by Wednesday morning.
This weather pattern is expected to influence another storm that is predicted to come into the region Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Cuoco said. It is too early to say how much snow that storm will drop, especially with the possibility of the storm splitting.
Storms split when wind speeds differ at altitude. The upper part of a storm will move with the winds in the higher parts of the atmosphere and the lower parts of the storm will do the same with winds closer to the ground. This causes split low-pressure systems, forcing air to move upward through the storm and splitting it in two.
The northern system often spins clockwise and dissipates, while the southern portion spins counterclockwise and strengthens. This splitting makes it difficult for forecasters to predict how a storm will track and where precipitation will fall.
bhauff@durangoherald.com
