Log In


Reset Password
News Education Local News Nation & World New Mexico

Precipitation likely over weekend

How much, what kind, where uncertain

Odds are we’ll get wet and colder over the weekend, but whether we’ll see snow in Durango is anybody’s guess.

“This one is difficult to predict because it’s coming out in pieces instead of one big storm,” said meteorologist Dennis Phillips, who is with the Grand Junction Office of the National Weather Service. “The question is when the actual cold air will move into Colorado to determine when the rain will turn to snow.”

The weather service said the highest chances of precipitation start at 50 percent tonight and go up to 60 percent through Sunday and Sunday night in town, with higher chances Sunday in the high country. Three to 6 inches of snow are expected on Molas, Coal Bank and Red Mountain passes and up to 10 inches on the mountains above them.

“This is a complicated storm with uncertainty in both timing and precipitation type, both of which will affect where the greatest snow will occur. If traveling, recreating or hunting in the mountains this weekend, be sure to check the latest forecasts,” the weather service said in a statement.

Phillips said the forecasts will be changing and becoming more specific as their confidence grows on predicting the storm.

The Colorado Avalanche Information Center recommends caution in the high country as well.

“Snowfall, strong winds and cold temperatures have begun to build the foundation for the coming winter’s snowpack,” Scott Toepfer of the center’s Boulder office said in a report Friday. “Many locations have seen old snow persist on the ground this summer, meaning slab avalanches can develop with new and wind-deposited snow on a hard, smooth old-snow surface. It is not unusual to hear of avalanche incidents in the fall.”

The CAIC will begin issuing daily weather and avalanche condition reports today.

This weekend probably won’t give Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort a leg up on the upcoming ski season. It may receive some snow, but Phillips didn’t expect anything significant.

“Luckily, it will be cold enough at DMR to make snow,” he said.

The high at DMR is predicted to be 33 degrees Sunday and 34 degrees Monday.

“It’s going to be fairly dry through the week until at least 10 days out,” Phillips said. “You’ll get back up to seasonal temperatures or maybe a little higher.”

But for the weekend, Phillips had some advice.

“People need to remember for the first couple of storms, you’re going to have to adjust to driving in snow and traveling in winter conditions again,” he said.

abutler@durangoherald.com

On the net

Visit www.crh.noaa.gov/gjt to see the latest forecast from the National Weather service.

Visit www.cotrip.org to check on the latest road conditions.

Visit http://avalanche.state.co.us for reports and avalanche-risk information from the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.



Reader Comments