{"id":52644,"date":"2020-07-19T19:32:21","date_gmt":"2020-07-20T01:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/monsoons-arrive-in-southwest-colorado\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:00:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T10:00:36","slug":"monsoons-arrive-in-southwest-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/monsoons-arrive-in-southwest-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"Monsoons arrive in Southwest Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The classic monsoon pattern that brings summer rains to Southwest Colorado has established itself over the past week and a half, according to the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Better late than never, the scattered showers Southwest Colorado has received for more than a week are indeed the arrival of the monsoon season \u2013 a relief to many as the seasonal rains stayed south of the Four Corners last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing is a result of the monsoonal pattern that sets up this time of year, and at least for the next couple days we\u2019ll continue to see a good chance of scattered showers. Monday is looking a little less likely for precipitation, but as we get into Tuesday, we\u2019re going to see that push of monsoonal moisture from the south and we\u2019ll have a good chance of rain through the weekend,\u201d said Kris Sanders, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The typical pattern for monsoonal rains will be followed for the upcoming week, with scattered rain showers likely in the afternoon. Sanders said showers could come earlier in the mountains, possibly coming as early as noon in the high country, with showers more likely in the valleys from 2 p.m. into the later afternoon.<\/p>\n

A good idea for people looking to recreate in the San Juan Mountains, Sanders said, is to get started early and to be off the mountain by noon or 1 p.m. to avoid getting caught in a rain shower.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnow before you go,\u201d is what we say, he said. \u201cIt\u2019s especially important if you\u2019re in an area with no cell services. Tell people what you\u2019re doing before you leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with the monsoons will come an increased chance of flash floods, and Sanders said the weather service will examine the patterns daily and look to issue flash flood watches when rainfall looks particularly heavy, especially over the 416 Fire\u2019s burn scar and the burn scar of June\u2019s East Canyon Fire.<\/p>\n

Some days might have several waves of showers \u2013 with an early afternoon shower followed by showers in the evening or even at night \u2013 but Sanders said the afternoon has the best chance of thunderstorms and showers.<\/p>\n

The current weather pattern is in a \u201cclassic monsoonal pattern\u201d with a high pressure system over the southern plains of the United States that brings up moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and a low pressure system off the coast of California that brings in moisture from the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n

Typically, from mid-July to early September, monsoons bring an increased chance of rain in Southwest Colorado and more broadly the Southwestern United States.<\/p>\n

The Climate Predication Center currently has a one-month outlook that expects normal levels of precipitation for the Four Corners.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough to do long-range forecasting once you get beyond a week or so, it\u2019s really difficult,\u201dSanders said.<\/p>\n

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

rains through the weekend as classic weather pattern sets in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29,88],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-52644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-weather-news"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52644","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=52644"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88122,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52644\/revisions\/88122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52644"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=52644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}