{"id":30267,"date":"2023-12-09T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-10T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cold-temps-dry-conditions-to-kick-off-the-week-ahead-in-southwest-colorado\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:15:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:15:19","slug":"cold-temps-dry-conditions-to-kick-off-the-week-ahead-in-southwest-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cold-temps-dry-conditions-to-kick-off-the-week-ahead-in-southwest-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"Cold temps, dry conditions to kick off the week ahead in Southwest Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Six
Six to 11 inches of snow could fall in the upper elevations of the San Juan Mountains early next week after what the National Weather Service office in Grand Junction considers a warmer-than-average October for the Durango area. But chances of snow in the lower elevation valleys are slim to none, said Brianna Bealo, meteorologist at the NWS in Grand Junction. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A northerly storm that favored the Northern Rocky Mountains missed much of Southwest Colorado late this week, but it delivered a blast of cold air that will stick around.<\/p>\n

Weather forecasters say temperatures will remain cool Sunday and Monday, with a warming trend beginning Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The low Sunday morning is expected to be 8 or 10 degrees, which is about 10 degrees below average for this time of year, said Lucas Boyer, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat cold air will stick around probably into Monday,\u201d Boyer said. \u201cMonday morning lows will be chilly again.\u201d<\/p>\n

A southwesterly flow will return Tuesday, and warmer temperatures will return to Southwest Colorado, he said. The highs Tuesday and Wednesday should hit the upper 40s, which is about 5 degrees above average for this time of year, he said.<\/p>\n

The shift should also bring cloud coverage midweek, but it is unlikely to deliver any moisture, he said. Another storm could graze Southwest Colorado late in the week, but little to no precipitation is expected for Cortez or Durango, Boyer said.<\/p>\n

Pagosa Springs may see snow this upcoming Thursday or Friday, he said. Likewise, Wolf Creek Pass should receive snow later in the week.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, the track of the low right now keeps some of the moisture shunted away from us and it might just be more of a cold front than anything,\u201d Boyer said. \u201cBut the mountains, they always manage (to get snow). Wolf Creek can get snow out of just a gentle breeze.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of Friday, the average snowpack in the San Juan Basin, which includes a dozen SNOTEL sites, was only 3.37 inches, which is 1.56 inches below the median for this time of year and 2.17 inches less compared to this time last year.<\/p>\n

But it is early in the season, and weather forecasters are predicting an El Ni\u00f1o weather pattern this winter, which could bring above-average snowfall to Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

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

Forecasters say low temps will be 10 degrees cooler than average<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[950,28,414],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-30267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-weather"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30267","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=30267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81016,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30267\/revisions\/81016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30267"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=30267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}