It may be too late for the snowpack, but not for the rain.
According to the Climate Prediction Center, precipitation looks good for Colorado and much of the Southwest for the next three months.
Tom Renwick with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction said that forecast models show values above average for Colorado, Texas and Utah.
“Looking at what you just received and what we’re looking for, that’s kind of right,” he said.
Although Monday looks nice for the Durango area, with sunshine and a high in the 60s, more moisture will move in Tuesday, with a chance to continue through Wednesday.
“It’s very monsoon-like precipitation coming up from the south,” he said.
A spring storm brought snow, hail, power outages, tornado warnings and flooded roads in Colorado during the weekend. It also brought frost warnings for Monday morning.
Beyond the closure of U.S. Highway 160 west of Durango because of snow-slick roads, other weather-related issues caused headaches across the state.
Major flood warnings were issued Sunday for the South Platte River in parts of Weld, Morgan, Washington and Logan counties. Forecasters urged people to be prepared to evacuate, but no evacuations were ordered.
Most of the rain and snow has moved out of the state, with a few flurries continuing in the mountains, and frost warnings are out for Monday morning along the Front Range and eastern Colorado, National Weather Service meteorologist Kari Bowen said on Sunday.
Saturday was hectic, she said Sunday. “We had a lot going on.”
Nearly 18 inches of snow fell in southern Colorado on Saturday. Two tornados were spotted, one south of Ellicott east of Colorado Springs and another in Lincoln County in northeast Colorado, and golf-ball sized hail fell east of Pueblo.
A number of power outages were reported Sunday from Woodland Park, Black Forest and Falcon, along with numerous small outages in the Denver metro area.
In northeastern Colorado, several roads and highways, including westbound Interstate 76 and Colorado Highways 52 and 194 in southeastern Colorado, were closed by flooding Sunday.
Renwick said temperatures should be about average during the next 90 days, but more wet weather than usual is on the way for Southwest Colorado and Durango; the precipitation should start this week.
“There’s a big low-pressure area coming off California, which brings more precipitation for you guys (Tuesday) in Durango and the San Juan Mountains,” he said. But that’s not all.
“Wow, look at that,” he said, “It’s showing another one doing almost the exact same thing for (May 17 and May 18). It does look like we’re getting that ‘above-average.’”
