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Snow (or rain) may make appearance at parade

Snowdown Light Parade in the eye of S.W. Colorado storm
Recent Snowdown Light Parade participants, such as Kitsy Williams and the Divas at last year’s parade, have enjoyed dry and relatively warm weather. The forecast for this year is rain or snow.

Snowdown fans, and anyone going outside, get your wet-weather gear ready. It literally may rain on your parade.

The National Weather Service issued a snow advisory for the southwestern San Juan Mountains to begin at 8 a.m. Friday and run through 8 p.m. Saturday.

In Durango, the prediction is for a mixture of rain and snow. The Snowdown Light Parade is set for 6 p.m. Friday, smack dab in the middle of the predicted precipitation.

Weather service forecaster Dan Cuevas, based in Grand Junction, said moisture is coming from Southern California. Durango has a 60 percent chance of moisture Thursday night, then a 90 percent chance of getting rain or snow both Friday afternoon and evening.

“It looks like you are in for some precipitation,” Cuevas said Thursday afternoon.

He said the forecast is for 6 to 10 inches of snow above 8,000 feet in the southwest San Juan Mountains, which includes the area roughly bordered by Hesperus, Rico and Silverton. The northwest San Juans, in the Lake City, Ouray and Telluride, are forecast for 3 to 7 inches of snow.

Cuevas said that no more than about an inch of snow will fall in Durango, as temperatures will stay fairly high through late Saturday. Both Friday and Saturday the high is predicted to reach 41, with a low Friday night of 27.

Snowdown participants and outdoors’ parade-goers may want to plan accordingly.

Doug Lenberg, one of the organizers of the Snowdown Balloon Rally, said the mass ascension Saturday morning could be affected. Pilots will meet for an early-morning weather briefing to determine a plan.

Balloons must follow Federal Aviation Administration visual rules; also, if there’s a chance of rain or snow damaging the balloons, they will not leave the ground, Lenberg said.

If the ascension, scheduled to include 25 balloons at 8 a.m. along Hermosa Meadows Road in the Animas Valley north of town, is grounded, then the balloonists will try to at least stand them up to entertain spectators and passengers on a special Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge train, Lenberg said.

Late Saturday, models show colder air arriving from the northwest, Cuevas said, with a low Saturday night of 22 degrees.

For Sunday and into the middle of next week, it’ll be dry with a high-pressure system settling in. Temperatures are expected to be seasonable or slightly above, Cuevas said.

johnp@durangoherald.com



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