{"id":52798,"date":"2020-07-10T19:19:16","date_gmt":"2020-07-11T01:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/will-southwest-colorado-break-100-degrees-this-weekend\/"},"modified":"2020-07-11T01:19:16","modified_gmt":"2020-07-11T01:19:16","slug":"will-southwest-colorado-break-100-degrees-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/will-southwest-colorado-break-100-degrees-this-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Southwest Colorado break 100 degrees this weekend?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"As
As temperatures hovered around 90 degrees Friday, the Animas River was a popular place to cool off. Durango could see record-high temperatures this weekend as a heat wave moves into the region.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Southwest Colorado could see record-high temperatures this weekend as a significant heat wave grips the region.<\/p>\n

Erin Walter, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction, said a high-pressure system is set to settle over the Four Corners this weekend, bringing hot and dry conditions.<\/p>\n

In Cortez, temperatures are expected to reach nearly 100 degrees Saturday and Sunday. \u201cWe\u2019re definitely looking at some record-high temperatures this weekend,\u201d Walter said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not unusual for a high-pressure system to settle over Southwest Colorado this time of year, Walter said. But what is different is how strong this system is, which is driving the hot conditions.<\/p>\n

The NWS has issued a heat warning advisory for the area.<\/p>\n

Also of note is the temperature drop from daytime highs to overnight lows, Walter said. On Saturday night, for example, temperatures could dip to 57 degrees \u2013 a nearly 40-degree gradient from the daytime high.<\/p>\n

\u201cDryness plays a big role in that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The chance for rain also does not look good for the coming days, Walter said.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a slight change storms packing moisture could move into the region Sunday into Monday, but with how dry conditions are, it\u2019s not likely any moisture would reach the ground, she said.<\/p>\n

Some areas of the high country, around Silverton, may get some rain, Walter said.<\/p>\n

Karola Hanks, fire marshal for Durango Fire Protection District, said conditions this weekend are likely to exacerbate the already high fire danger in Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just going to make it so much more likely that something that wouldn\u2019t normally start a fire will, just because of how dry it is,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Most of Southwest Colorado is under Stage 1 fire restrictions, which prohibits things like campfires, smoking outside and fireworks.<\/p>\n

Hanks said the district has not yet called for increased protections under Stage 2 fire restrictions because, for the most part, the community has followed existing regulations and human-caused fires haven\u2019t been an issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf our folks are being good, then we can hold off implementing more restrictive restrictions,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s really about how we as a community behave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Esther Godson, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service, said the agency is not considering Stage 2 restrictions. The San Juan National Forest is under a more restrictive version of Stage 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, the restrictions meet the criteria we have, are appropriate and are working,\u201d she said. \u201cOf course, we continually monitor to determine if a change in restriction levels is needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long-term prediction models show no relief in sight for Southwest Colorado\u2019s hot and dry spell, said Anthony Artusa, a meteorologist with NOAA\u2019s Climate Prediction Center.<\/p>\n

For the next several weeks, models show the region at an increased chance of higher-than-normal temperatures and below-normal precipitation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it looks like there is a delay in the arrival of the monsoons, which is not good,\u201d Artusa said.<\/p>\n

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, nearly all of Southwest Colorado is listed in an \u201cextreme drought\u201d category. Since Jan. 1, a weather station at Durango-La Plata County Airport has recorded just 2.83 inches of precipitation \u2013 down about 3.54 inches from normal.<\/p>\n

The Animas River, which is usually running around 1,340 cubic feet per second this time of year, was recorded flowing through town Friday at just 360 cfs.<\/p>\n

Meteorologists are pinning their hopes on an approaching system moving into the region next week that may push out the high-pressure system causing the heat wave.<\/p>\n

Then, it\u2019s possible some monsoonal moisture could move in, and potentially, moisture could hit the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of uncertainty right now,\u201d Walter said. \u201cBut it\u2019s definitely needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Powerful heat wave settles over region<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[402,1480,28,29,414,88,84],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-52798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-drought","tag-durango-fire-protection-district","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-weather","tag-weather-news","tag-wildfire"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52798","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=52798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52798"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=52798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}