{"id":29918,"date":"2024-01-03T23:15:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T06:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/first-snow-of-2024-coming-to-southwest-colorado-on-thursday\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:06:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:06:44","slug":"first-snow-of-2024-coming-to-southwest-colorado-on-thursday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/first-snow-of-2024-coming-to-southwest-colorado-on-thursday\/","title":{"rendered":"First snow of 2024 coming to Southwest Colorado on Thursday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Drivers
Drivers make their way up a snow-covered U.S. Highway 550 on Friday north of Durango after a snowstorm moved through the area. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Southwest Colorado could experience some much needed snowfall Thursday, as the forecast indicates precipitation throughout the day.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a slow start to winter in terms of precipitation, despite Thanksgiving weekend flurries.<\/p>\n

The storm is supposed to start early Thursday morning with a 90% chance of heavy snow throughout the day, according to the National Weather Service\u2019s seven-day forecast.<\/p>\n

This will undoubtedly help the region\u2019s ski areas. Less than two months in their respective ski seasons, Purgatory Resort has a 19-inch base, while Wolf Creek Ski Area has around 80 inches. Both ski areas do make snow to help them through dry portions of the winter.<\/p>\n

Purgatory\u2019s website reports that the resort receives an average of 260 inches of snow annually, while Wolf Creek on average receives around 430 inches per year.<\/p>\n

National Weather Service meteorologist Brianna Bealo said Durango can expect 3 to 5 inches of snow within the city limits, plus 8 to 10 inches in the higher elevations along U.S. Highway 550.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be kind of a messy morning commute, unfortunately. This first system is sweeping across Arizona and New Mexico and because of that, (you\u2019re) getting a southerly flow that should fare well against the San Juan Mountains,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Montezuma County can expect 1 to 3 inches with slightly elevated numbers nearing Towaoc. Bealo said Pagosa Springs can also expect slightly lower numbers than Durango with an estimated 2 to 4 inches of snow, while Wolf Creek Pass could see anywhere from 6 to 8 inches.<\/p>\n

Despite a sizable amount of snowfall to begin 2023, Bealo said precipitation was roughly 3 inches below average for the year. This was likely a result of a dry second half of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve ended up in really blocky patterns (near the end of 2023). We\u2019ve had a lot of, like, really amplified ridges of high pressure and really deep troughs of low pressure that just weren\u2019t moving,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While the weather has been on the dry side to start this winter, Bealo is optimistic about a shift in weather pattern starting with Thursday\u2019s storm, adding there could be more precipitation next week. Another storm is also in the forecast for Sunday, which she says could provide a few more inches than Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not necessarily clear cut because we\u2019re talking about over a week into the future. But it\u2019s definitely looking unsettled. It\u2019s looking like we\u2019re going to be under a trough more than we\u2019re going to be under a ridge, and that\u2019s a good sign as far as precipitation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A trough is an extended zone of moderately low pressure that emanates from the core of a low pressure area, which is more conducive to precipitation. A ridge is an elongated area of relatively high pressure extending from the center of a high-pressure region that tends to favor dry weather conditions.<\/p>\n

Bealo said Thursday\u2019s storm should stick around for most of the day, while Sunday\u2019s storm could last well into late Monday afternoon. The NWS has issued a weather advisory warning for Thursday.<\/p>\n

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

Durango could see as much as 6 inches; Montezuma County can expect 1 to 3 inches<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,475,60,1164,414],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-29918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-la-plata-county-colorado","tag-montezuma-county","tag-snow","tag-weather"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29918","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=29918"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80908,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29918\/revisions\/80908"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29918"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=29918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}