{"id":15095,"date":"2025-12-25T21:46:41","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T04:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-flirts-with-record-warm-temperatures-christmas-day\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:45:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:45:21","slug":"durango-flirts-with-record-warm-temperatures-christmas-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-flirts-with-record-warm-temperatures-christmas-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango flirts with record warm temperatures Christmas Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Christmas
Christmas Day in Durango was wet and warm. More precipitation \u2013 although not necessarily in the form of snow \u2013 is forecast for the next couple of weeks, according to the National Weather Service in Grand Junction. (Christian Burney\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Durango stared down possible record-setting warm temperatures Thursday on Christmas Day, and it wasn\u2019t the only Colorado locale to do so, according to the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.<\/p>\n

Conditions made for an uncharacteristically wet and warm holiday.<\/p>\n

Kate Abbott, meteorologist for the NWS Grand Junction office, said the warmest temperature on Dec. 25 recorded at Durango-La Plata County Airport dating back to 1966 was 55 degrees in 1996.<\/p>\n

In 2005, the high temperature for Dec. 25 was 53 degrees. In 2017, the high temperature was 52 degrees, she said.<\/p>\n

She said Thursday\u2019s high temperature forecast was 53 degrees.<\/p>\n

Denver was forecast earlier this week to have the warmest Christmas on record. Abbott said the Mile High City\u2019s previous warmest record for Dec. 25 was 69, set in 2005, and Thursday\u2019s forecast was set to match it.<\/p>\n

She said Boulder had a record-setting high temperature for Dec. 24 on Wednesday. Grand Junction had reached a high temperature of 59 degrees around 3 a.m. Thursday, and its current record-high temperature for the date is 60 degrees.<\/p>\n

While surveying Colorado Department of Transportation camera feeds on U.S. Highway 550, she said the NWS Grand Junction office had received reports of snowfall at elevations above 9,000 feet, but there was little evidence of accumulation above about 2 inches.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere might be up to an inch or two, but from what we\u2019re seeing, that might be a little generous,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A trace of snow was reported 7 miles northeast of Pagosa Springs.<\/p>\n

A Wolf Creek Pass station reported about 0.013 inches of precipitation as of 10 a.m. Thursday \u2013 about an inch of snow was forecast for the rest of the day. Abbott said up to an inch of snow had accumulated along the highway, but nothing was sticking to the pavement.<\/p>\n

\u201c39 and rain. Awful,\u201d Jimmy Keene II, a Silverton resident, said. \u201cSkipping Purg today. It must be miserable there (in Durango).\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Purgatory Resort\u2019s online weather report, conditions were rainy and snowy Saturday afternoon, although zero snowfall or accumulation had been reported within the past 24 hours. Base snow depth was reported at 14 inches.<\/p>\n

Pedestrians on Main Avenue \u2013 mainly tourists hoping for a snowy holiday getaway from warmer states \u2013 had mixed feelings about mostly rainy and warm weather.<\/p>\n

Jill Jones and Greg Osenga, who were visiting from Santa Fe, said Durango weather seemed similar to conditions back home.<\/p>\n

\"Jill
Jill Jones and Greg Osenga window shop at the Main Mall on Main Avenue in Durango on Thursday, Christmas Day. Visiting from Santa Fe, they said they don\u2019t mind a wet Christmas. (Christian Burney\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cBut what a gorgeous town,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Osenga added it was their first time staying in Durango but not their first time passing through.<\/p>\n

Jones said she heard the Strater Hotel is haunted, and that\u2019s why she chose to stay there.<\/p>\n

Two families from Texas said they were hoping for snow for the holidays, but they are enjoying their time in town regardless.<\/p>\n

The ingredients needed for a white Christmas in Durango included the moisture, but the cold air was missing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe system we had move in was mainly a big push of moisture from the atmospheric rivers that have been plaguing the West Coast here for the last few days,\u201d Abbott said.<\/p>\n

The moisture made its way into the Four Corners but didn\u2019t have enough drive to create snowfall.<\/p>\n

The storm\u2019s moisture content was 250% to 300% of normal \u2013 a \u201cvery moist air mass,\u201d she said \u2013 but it\u2019s also been an unseasonably warm air mass.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t able to convert it into snow due to those warm temperatures,\u201d she said. \u201cSystems like this are usually what bring us good mountain snows to the southern mountains in wintertime. A few degrees the other direction could have made a big difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abbott said the moisture \u2013 snow or rain \u2013 is still good for the area given the drought conditions that have persisted through the fall and into early winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cTemperature is so important in winter,\u201d she said. \u201cA degree or two can completely change the outcome of the system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Southwesterly flow over the region is sucking in warmer air from the southwest, she said. The moisture was delivered, but there was no cooler air accompanying it, and thus no snow.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe finally get a nice push of cold air coming in late Friday into Saturday, and so that could bring some snowfall to most of the area mountains,\u201d Abbott said. \u201cUnfortunately for you guys down south, it\u2019s going to favor more the northern and central Colorado mountains.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four to 6 inches of snow is projected to fall in Southwest Colorado \u2013 mostly above 9,000 to 10,000 feet on Saturday \u2013 with some light snow continuing on Sunday and tapering off that evening, she said.<\/p>\n

Monday through Wednesday is forecast to be dry again.<\/p>\n

Abbott said the tropical Pacific is stuck in a weak La Nina cycle, which favors warmer and drier winters in the Four Corners. Conditions could change, she said, but the near-term climate outlook for the next couple of weeks entails above-normal temperatures and above-normal precipitation.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t necessarily mean it will snow \u2013 but it does mean more moisture is possible, she said.<\/p>\n

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

precipitation \u2013 not necessarily snow \u2013 due in coming weeks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[950,28,1623,1164,994,414],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-rain","tag-snow","tag-trueanthem","tag-weather"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15095","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=15095"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19417,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15095\/revisions\/19417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15095"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}