{"id":71458,"date":"2016-12-15T04:29:51","date_gmt":"2016-12-15T11:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-approaching-storm-will-be-wet-then-cold\/"},"modified":"2016-12-15T11:29:51","modified_gmt":"2016-12-15T11:29:51","slug":"update-approaching-storm-will-be-wet-then-cold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-approaching-storm-will-be-wet-then-cold\/","title":{"rendered":"Update: Approaching storm will be wet, then cold"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The Colorado Department of Transportation will use its electronic message boards this weekend across the region to remind drivers never to pass snowplows on the right.<\/span>Courtesy of Colorado Department of Transportation<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The moisture will appear mostly as rain in lower elevations such as Cortez, Durango and Pagosa Springs, but even valleys below 8,000 feet in elevation may receive a few inches of snow, said Tom Renwick, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the higher elevations, we are talking on the order of feet (of snow) \u2013 a couple of feet would not be out of the question with this one,\u201d he said. \u201cSkiers should rejoice; this should be a really good one for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The precipitation is expected to start Thursday evening and continue into Saturday afternoon. A winter storm warning was issued for elevations above 8,000 feet from 11 a.m. Thursday through Saturday, including the towns of Telluride, Rico, Hesperus, Silverton and Ouray. Southwest winds are expected to be 25-30 mph, with gusts reaching 55 mph. Sunny skies are expected on Sunday, but the National Weather Service says it will be cold, with a high in the upper 20s and a low around 10.<\/p>\n

In Cortez, the National Weather Service forecast an 80 percent chance of rain on Thursday, and rain and snow on Friday. High temperatures were expected to be in the middle to upper 40s, with overnight lows dropping to 21 degrees on Friday.<\/p>\n

As the storm approaches, the Colorado Department of Transportation is asking drivers to be cautious around snowplows and never pass them on the right. A driver crashed into a snowplow last week near Purgatory Resort while trying to pass it, said Lisa Schwantes, spokeswoman with the highway department.<\/p>\n

CDOT will use its electronic message boards to remind drivers not to pass snowplows on the right, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey really need to give our guys room to work,\u201d she said. \u201cI know it seems like those plows are going slow, but they need to go the speed they\u2019re going to most efficiently and safely remove the snow and apply their agents, whether it\u2019s sand or liquid deicer. If folks would just stay back three to four car lengths.\u201d<\/p>\n

What about the polar vortex?<\/div>\n

Last week, forecasters had the polar vortex \u2013 a term that describes cold air from the North Pole \u2013 lasting deep into December and extending from the Pacific Northwest to the Northeast and dropping south into Colorado, Texas and Georgia. Though the wave of cold has hit the upper Midwest, it has spared the Southwest.<\/p>\n

Meteorologists blame the volatile weather on two phenomena: La Ni\u00f1a in the Pacific and the Madden Julian Oscillation. Together, they will keep forecasters on their toes with bursts of cold and warmer-than-average temperatures, according to The Weather Co.<\/p>\n

La Ni\u00f1a \u2013 defined by a cooler equatorial Pacific Ocean \u2013 can overpower winter conditions that make the West mild and the East cold. The Madden Julian Oscillation \u2013 a mix of clouds, rain, winds and pressure that crosses the tropics \u2013 weakens the high pressure across the northern ocean that pushes cold air from the Arctic into North America.<\/p>\n

The weather is \u201ca mess,\u201d said Matt Rogers, of the Commodity Weather Group in Maryland, told USA Today. \u201cWe will be dealing with these swings a lot this winter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The (Cortez) Journal contributed to this article.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colorado Department of Transportation will use its electronic message boards this weekend across the region to remind drivers never to pass snowplows on the right.Courtesy of Colorado Department of Transportation The moisture will appear mostly as rain in lower elevations such as Cortez, Durango and Pagosa Springs, but even valleys below 8,000 feet in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":71459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[576,21,13,88],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-71458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-department-of-transportation","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-weather-news"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71458","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=71458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71458"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=71458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}