{"id":47762,"date":"2021-03-26T00:12:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T06:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fridays-commute-might-be-difficult-in-southwest-colorado\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:40:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:40:17","slug":"fridays-commute-might-be-difficult-in-southwest-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fridays-commute-might-be-difficult-in-southwest-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday\u2019s commute might be difficult in Southwest Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Wednesday
Wednesday morning\u2019s dicey commute might be repeated Friday morning. On Thursday, another storm bringing snow, a rain-snow mix and rain moved over the Four Corners. The next chance for precipitation in Southwest Colorado is expected Tuesday.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The final blow from this week\u2019s three-punch combo of snowstorms hit Southwest Colorado ahead of forecast \u2013 with Durango seeing snowfall by late morning Thursday instead of the predicted nighttime arrival.<\/p>\n

The storm is expected to be out of the region Friday evening, with clear skies and warming temperatures expected for the weekend. The next chance of precipitation will come Tuesday, said Kris Sanders, senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Durango, you\u2019re looking at 2 inches, maybe 4 inches at the most. It\u2019s hard to tell,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cSome of it might come as rain. The foothills will be closer to 4 inches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cortez should see lighter accumulations, about an inch with up to 3 inches possible if heavy snowfall occurs during the coldest part of the night, he said. Pagosa Springs was looking at 4 inches to 6 inches.<\/p>\n

\"Nicollete
Nicollete Iron Shell walks her dogs, Bindi and Reci, on Wednesday morning as light snow falls in Durango. Another bout of snow that hit Southwest Colorado on Thursday is expected to continue through Friday evening in lower elevations. Snow flurries might continue in the high country through midnight Friday.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThe drive in (Friday) along the (U.S. Highway 160) corridor could be pretty rough, especially around Hesperus,\u201d Sanders said.<\/p>\n

For the San Juan Mountains, the deepest accumulations should occur on Wolf Creek Pass, where up to 18 inches of fresh powder could fall.<\/p>\n

Sanders said Silverton and Telluride are looking at about 4 inches of accumulation by Friday morning with a total of 6 inches possible from the storm.<\/p>\n

The northern San Juans won\u2019t be hit as hard as the southern mountains , he said. Ouray is looking at about 4 inches from the storm. Favored peaks in the southern San Juans could see up to 14 inches with most of the southern San Juans getting anywhere from 6 to 10 inches.<\/p>\n

The storm will be out of the lower elevations by Friday evening, but snow flurries could continue through midnight Friday in the San Juan Mountains.<\/p>\n

A high pressure ridge should move over the region for the weekend.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Animas River flows through a winter wonderland on Wednesday north of Durango.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A small storm that could produce snow and rain could hit Southwest Colorado on Tuesday, Sanders said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might get a little breezy Monday evening, and then you might see a quick-moving system on Tuesday, but it doesn\u2019t look like a crazy amount of precipitation. It\u2019s just not very strong and it\u2019s quick-moving,\u201d Sanders said.<\/p>\n

As of Thursday, the Natural Resources Conservation Services Snotel map<\/a> reported snowpack for the San Juan, Animas, Dolores and San Miguel river basins at 86% of the 30-year average. The Colorado Avalanche Information Center listed the avalanche danger at \u201cmoderate\u201d for both the northern and southern San Juan Mountains.<\/p>\n

Also as of Thursday, the U.S. Drought Monitor<\/a> lists the southern portions of La Plata and Montezuma counties in \u201cexceptional drought\u201d and the northern portions in \u201cextreme drought.\u201d Most of the western half of Archuleta County is in \u201cextreme drought\u201d and the eastern half is in \u201csevere drought.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Weekend looks clear with the next chance for precipitation coming Tuesday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[13,28,29,414],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-47762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-weather"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47762","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=47762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87241,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47762\/revisions\/87241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47762"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=47762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}