{"id":139122,"date":"2026-07-14T18:26:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T00:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/daily-thunderstorms-return-to-montezuma-county\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T18:26:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T00:26:45","slug":"daily-thunderstorms-return-to-montezuma-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/daily-thunderstorms-return-to-montezuma-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Daily thunderstorms return to Montezuma County"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Showers
Showers and scattered thunderstorms are projected to become daily occurrences this week and to bring along cooler weather and higher humidity. (Anna Watson\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Upon weeks of heat and exceptional dryness, Montezuma County is seeing a familiar midsummer swing as moisture returns with daily chances for rain.<\/p>\n

The forecast offers a welcome reprieve for the Ferris Fire suppression effort, though gusty winds or lightning may introduce new fire spots, according to Ferris Fire Information officials.<\/p>\n

National Weather Service meteorologist Kris Sanders said the forecast indicates a transition into a monsoonal pattern, characterized by scattered to widespread showers and thunderstorms nearly every afternoon through the weekend.<\/p>\n

Temperatures are expected to hover in the low 90s and decrease later through the week to upper and mid-80s by the weekend.<\/p>\n

Showers and storms are expected to develop over high terrain each afternoon before moving off. The chances of precipitation rise throughout the weekend, with Sanders saying daily percentages increase from 60% Wednesday to 80% by Friday for Cortez.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn general with thunderstorms, these storms can produce gusty winds or brief, heavy rainfall and small hail in some cases, especially as we get into later in this week where moisture increases,\u201d Sanders said.<\/p>\n

\"The
The cooling off is driven by the movement of high pressure around the U.S., cloud cover and rain-cooled air after last weekend\u2019s heat relinquished across the Four Corners. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Sanders said it\u2019s difficult for forecasters to say how much rain will come. This is due to showers being scattered in nature. However, he said forecasters are predicting anywhere from a quarter-inch to an inch in some places.<\/p>\n

Crews working on the roughly 64,800-acre Ferris Fire receive daily updates from the camp\u2019s on-site meteorologist.<\/p>\n

According to fire officials, cooler weather, increasing humidity and showers are likely to moderate fire behavior.<\/p>\n

California Team 7 spokeswoman Rita Frederick said the shift in weather gives firefighters additional time to target areas more aggressively while it\u2019s raining.<\/p>\n

\"Scattered
Scattered showers will continue for the next few days. Ferris Fire officials said firefighters can gain more ground to mop up and improve fire containment in the rain, although crews must also watch out for erratic winds, heavy downpours and lightning. (Courtesy of Ferris Fire Information)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe have been dumping buckets of water, and this is a natural big bucket of water,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Fire to the northeast received rain early this week. While other areas, such as the Bradfield campsite and near Cahone to the southwest, received very little.<\/p>\n

Frederick said it wasn\u2019t a huge concern because there\u2019s been success in establishing a containment line already.<\/p>\n

Containment for the entire Ferris Fire perimeter is 29%. Lighting is prone to start wildfires and a storm\u2019s fast winds can grow them, so crew safety continues to be a top priority, Frederick said.<\/p>\n

\"Tuesday\u2019s
Tuesday\u2019s map of the Ferris Fire uses a black line to depict contained parts of the fire\u2019s perimeter. (Ferris Fire Information)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cEspecially if crews are mopping up areas where trees have been burned, they could be more likely to see trees falling,\u201d she said. \u201cTactics at least have not changed drastically, just because the rain has been so scattered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frederick added that plans shift or crews are called to stand down if critical weather or flooding occurs. Officials stated in a Ferris Fire news release that despite weather-prone hazards, the forecast is in more favor of wildfire reduction.<\/p>\n

Previous month stats: typically dry June even drier this year<\/div>\n

Weather data for June, as prepared for the National Weather Service by local weather spotter Jim Andrus, provides a view of persistent dryness.<\/p>\n

Andrus said even for a typically dry month, June captured far below normal for rainfall, measuring 0.12 inches compared to the monthly average of 0.37.<\/p>\n

May\u2019s traces of rain left the landscape parched.<\/p>\n

According to Andrus\u2019 report, the year-to-date precipitation level amounts to a little more than three inches in Cortez, or 67% of the average rainfall expected by this time of the year. He said dry months put all of Colorado west of the Continental\u00a0Divide into drought ranging from severe to extreme\u00a0to exceptional.<\/p>\n

As this month begins the monsoon stretch through September, the 30-day outlook predicts an irregular start. The 90-day weather outlook, which is closer to capturing the heart of monsoon season, is more optimistic for rain.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the persistence of drought we are experiencing, even if future precipitation forecasts are more optimistic, this skeptical meteorologist still lives by this\u00a0statement: I\u2019ll believe it when I measure it,\u201d Andrus said.<\/p>\n

awatson@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shift from excessive heat to scattered storms eases drought, critical fire weather <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":139123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,28,60,29,6419,414,84],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-139122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter","tag-tj-trueanthem","tag-weather","tag-wildfire"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139122"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=139122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}