After about a month without significant snow, winter weather is returning this week to La Plata County and the San Juan Mountains.
A storm system brought light snow to the Durango area Tuesday night that is expected to stretch through Wednesday, accumulating a couple of inches in some places and nearly 2 feet in others. Freezing temperatures will follow the snowfall in the latter half of the week.
A winter storm watch is in effect for Durango, Bayfield and Ignacio until 2 p.m. Wednesday with 2 to 4 inches of snow projected.
“The bulk of precipitation is going to occur Tuesday night and early Wednesday as the system lifts across the area,” said Megan Stackhouse, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction. “It’s going sit there for a little bit on Wednesday morning before finally pushing out later on in the day.”
While the Durango area will receive a couple of inches, other parts of Southwest Colorado will see more significant snow.
Forecasts show 8 to 12 inches of snow falling on the southwest San Juan Mountains, which includes the towns of Silverton and Rico.
The Pagosa Springs area is looking at 4 to 8 inches, and about 20 inches of snow could fall on Wolf Creek Pass, Stackhouse said.
“We’re really expecting the peak amounts to occur in the southwest San Juan Mountains,” she said. “They’re really in that favored (forecast) pattern, so we’re expecting to get some good snow there.”
In other parts of Southwest Colorado, forecasts show little accumulation with less than an inch in Cortez and 1 to 2 inches in Dolores, according to the National Weather Service.
Temperatures will remain cold through the end of the workweek, as the storm moves through and brings a cold front with it.
Lows in the upper teens and low 20s on Monday and Tuesday will be replaced by single digits, including a low of 6 degrees in Durango on Thursday night, Stackhouse said.
“As the system comes in, it’s looking to drop into highs in the 20s,” she said.
“(The storm) is being influenced by stuff going on in Canada, so we’re getting a lot of good Arctic air coming in,” she said.
According to the NWS forecast for Durango, temperatures will start to rebound on Friday, but that rebound will be determined by how much snow falls on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“(We) could be looking at staying in the 20s for several days,” Stackhouse said. “We will have to see what happens with the snow, because that’ll be a big drive on the temperatures.”
ahannon@durangoherald.com
