A blustery weather pattern muting that spring fever feel should move out of Southwest Colorado on Friday evening, with perhaps a few lingering snow showers in the high country.
“This system is moving through in the southwestern United States, Arizona and New Mexico, and that can bring pretty good snow to the San Juans,” said Michael Charnick, senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.
A storm was expected to bring 6 to 10 inches of snow above 10,000 feet in the San Juan Mountains on Tuesday night and should extend through the day Wednesday, he said. Silverton and Telluride could receive about 6 inches, with the mountains above them getting up to 10 inches.
Lower elevations, the U.S. Highway 160 corridor from Cortez to Pagosa Springs, were expected to see rain, but lowlanders could see anywhere from a trace of powder up to 2 inches of snow, depending on when the storm hits.
Charnick expected the heaviest snowfall to come late Tuesday and early Wednesday.
“Things will wind down Wednesday evening, with some lingering mountain flurries,” he said. “The rest of the week, we kind of dry out Thursday, but Thursday evening into Friday morning, another disturbance looks to be coming through,” he said.
The Thursday-Friday trough should look similar to the earlier storm, with lower elevations maybe more likely to see accumulations because of colder nighttime and early morning temperatures
The weekend looks to be dry with warming temperatures, Charnick said.
Spring snow would help the regional snowpack.
According to the Natural Resources Conservation Service Snotel map, the snowpack in Southwest Colorado’s river basins was at 83% of the 30-year average as of Tuesday.
parmijo@durangoherald.com
