{"id":102520,"date":"2017-12-07T13:23:35","date_gmt":"2017-12-07T20:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cold-snap-across-southwest-colorado-expected-to-be-short-lived\/"},"modified":"2017-12-07T13:23:35","modified_gmt":"2017-12-07T20:23:35","slug":"cold-snap-across-southwest-colorado-expected-to-be-short-lived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cold-snap-across-southwest-colorado-expected-to-be-short-lived\/","title":{"rendered":"Cold snap across Southwest Colorado expected to be short-lived"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Thanks
Thanks to a recent cold snap in Southwest Colorado, these mallards find themselves walking atop frozen water Wednesday in the north Animas Valley.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Some winter enthusiasts across Colorado have taken to ski burning to appease Ullr, the Norse god of snow and patron saint of skiers.<\/p>\n

The pagan ritual is meant to reverse Southwest Colorado\u2019s snow drought \u00ad\u2013 which is expected to continue into next week.<\/p>\n

Norv Larson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction, said the recent cold snap came from an Arctic system from the north.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe air mass has origins in the Arctic, and all it takes is a weather system or undulation to get that cold air moving, and it drifts across the area,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

To the dismay of many skiers, little to no precipitation is expected this week, Larson said.<\/p>\n

And while the cold weather feels appropriate for December, temperatures will likely warm up through the weekend and into early next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cTemperatures will moderate by Friday to the mid-40s and be in the 50s through the weekend,\u201d Larson said.<\/p>\n

Ski resorts are taking advantage of the cold temperatures, which have been favorable for snowmaking efforts.<\/p>\n

Purgatory Resort spokeswoman Kim Oyler said crews have been \u201cworking around the clock to make more snow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have been able to make snow since 2 a.m. on Monday,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are always doing the snow dance. Our snowmaking crews have done a phenomenal job this year in getting the mountain open early.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional terrain at Purgatory is expected to open Friday, and the resort will start to offer beginner ski lessons.<\/p>\n

Above-average temperatures are expected through December and into February, but predicting precipitation this early is a scientific crapshoot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no strong signal to indicate one way or the other in terms of precipitation,\u201d Larson said.<\/p>\n

Sunny skies are expected throughout the week, with temperatures dipping into the teens at night.<\/p>\n

mrupani@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Above-average temperatures could last through January<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":102521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[712,88],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-102520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-purgatory","tag-weather-news"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102520"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=102520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}