{"id":127029,"date":"2026-04-30T17:00:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T23:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-and-surrounding-areas-see-freeze-warning-and-small-chances-of-precipitation\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T17:00:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T23:00:37","slug":"cortez-and-surrounding-areas-see-freeze-warning-and-small-chances-of-precipitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-and-surrounding-areas-see-freeze-warning-and-small-chances-of-precipitation\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez and surrounding areas see freeze warning and small chances of precipitation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=55e6a920-ff59-43ad-b101-53141548077c&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=55e6a920-ff59-43ad-b101-53141548077c&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=800 800w, https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=55e6a920-ff59-43ad-b101-53141548077c&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=1200 1200w, https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=55e6a920-ff59-43ad-b101-53141548077c&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=1800 1800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 2000px\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1330\" alt=\"Although the National Weather Service warned of subfreezing temperatures between midnight and 9 a.m. Friday, significant precipitation appears unlikely. (Journal file photo)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Although the National Weather Service warned of subfreezing temperatures between midnight and 9 a.m. Friday, significant precipitation appears unlikely. (Journal file photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>The National Weather Service issued a freeze warning Thursday for Cortez and the Four Corners starting at midnight and lasting until 9 a.m. Friday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTonight in the Cortez area, the low is going to be in the upper 20s to low 30s,\u201d Brianna Bealo, forecaster for the NWS office in Grand Junction, said. \u201cYou\u2019ll probably see those temperatures between 2 or 3 in the morning through 8 or so in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She cautioned residents to protect sensitive plants and outdoor plumbing, adding the NWS is keeping an eye on temperatures Friday night in case of another freeze.<\/p>\n<p><\/p><div class=\"naviga-social-embed\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FMontezumaCountyColorado%2Fposts%2Fpfbid0ACGXAiDWYB7DkWZ5SGu7Gqe2r9VYgcWiNRpRoriA9VYCRdxpNYvXr8JA21dPSzEul&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"652\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n<p>Precipitation could fall over Cortez and surrounding areas in the coming days as temperatures warm into the 70s over the weekend before cooling on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou might see a few showers tomorrow afternoon,\u201d Bealo said, mentioning possible rain or thunderstorms next week.<\/p>\n<p>Friday sees a 20% chance of precipitation while Sunday and Monday see a similar likelihood for rain and thunder.<\/p>\n<p>Local weather spotter Jim Andrus is not optimistic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe storm that is bringing this precipitation is too far south,\u201d Andrus said, adding it would likely hit southern and central New Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaybe we\u2019ll get a tenth of an inch of rain. I wouldn\u2019t expect more than that,\u201d Andrus said. \u201cWe\u2019re still not getting too much else regarding this drought from the weather gods.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said limited vegetation around the city is visibly suffering through the drought.<\/p>\n<p>Andrus said he estimates the month of supposed April showers brought a total of 1.25 inches of water to Cortez \u2013 not optimal for May flowers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI sure wish we could come up with a good news weather report, but this drought makes it hard to that,\u201d Andrus said.<\/p>\n<p>The initial storm that hit Cortez on April 1 seems like a prank to him now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cApril is living up to its April Fools\u2019 reputation,\u201d Andrus said.<\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-a3713baec3c658928026eaecb438d6ab\"><a href=\"mailto:avanderveen@the-journal.com\">avanderveen@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"naviga-social-embed\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FMontezumaCountyColorado%2Fposts%2Fpfbid0ACGXAiDWYB7DkWZ5SGu7Gqe2r9VYgcWiNRpRoriA9VYCRdxpNYvXr8JA21dPSzEul&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"652\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>advises residents to protect sensitive crops and outdoor plumbing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[402,28,29,1623,6419,414],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-127029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-drought","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-rain","tag-tj-trueanthem","tag-weather"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127029","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=127029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127029"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=127029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}