{"id":97445,"date":"2018-10-16T19:06:38","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T01:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/temperatures-dip-purgatory-resort-brings-out-snow-guns\/"},"modified":"2018-10-16T19:06:38","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T01:06:38","slug":"temperatures-dip-purgatory-resort-brings-out-snow-guns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/temperatures-dip-purgatory-resort-brings-out-snow-guns\/","title":{"rendered":"Temperatures dip; Purgatory Resort brings out snow guns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Purgatory
Purgatory Resort began making snow at 10 p.m. Sunday, and snowmaking continued for 12 hours. In addition, a storm system moving through Southwest Colorado from Tuesday night through Thursday should bring natural snow to the southern San Juan Mountains.<\/span>Courtesy of Josh Hamill\/Purgatory Resort<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

After last year\u2019s unseasonably dry and warm winter, things appear to have started out better for winter 2018-19: Purgatory Resort was able to begin making snow at 10 p.m. Sunday.<\/p>\n

Kim Oyler, director of communications, said the resort was able to make snow for \u201ca solid 12 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Purgatory<\/a> should be heartened by the forecast for Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

Jim Pringle, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction<\/a>, said a system should produce rain at lower elevations and snow down to about 8,500 feet from Tuesday through Thursday, with snow possibly dipping lower than 8,500 feet late Tuesday and early Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Pringle expects the storm could drop 4 to 8 inches of snow below 10,000 feet and 6 to 12 inches above 10,000 feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re starting out on a positive precipitation note for fall in Western Colorado,\u201d Pringle said.<\/p>\n

Temperatures in the mountains were expected to dip to 24 degrees Wednesday night and Thursday night. Daytime highs in the mountains are expected to be in the mid-30s.<\/p>\n

Nighttime lows in Durango are expected to be in the mid to high 30s on Wednesday and Thursday. Highs in Durango are expected to be in the high 40s to low 50s on Wednesday and Thursday.<\/p>\n

Another storm could move into the region Oct. 23, Pringle said. Next week\u2019s storm, he said, initially looks to have warmer temperatures, but by midweek, temperatures are expected to drop.<\/p>\n

Even better news for Purgatory and skiers \u2013 the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center<\/a> expects a weak to moderate El Ni\u00f1o to form from November to early April, Pringle said.<\/p>\n

El Ni\u00f1os tend to favor above-average snowfall for the southern San Juan Mountains.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope it pans out,\u201d Pringle said. \u201cIt should if we\u2019re going into an El Ni\u00f1o, even if it is a weak to moderate one.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few more snowstorms would be a great aid to Purgatory to open by its scheduled opening date, Nov. 17.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always awesome to have natural snow,\u201d Oyler said.<\/p>\n

Still, even if storms don\u2019t materialize, Oyler expected Purgatory to open Nov. 17 with runs open on about 20 percent of its terrain that can be covered by snowmaking.<\/p>\n

Purgatory has the ability to make snow on the frontside of the mountain and in the Lift 3 and Lift 8 areas, Oyler said.<\/p>\n

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

bring moisture through Thursday; more expected next week<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5770],"tags":[378,13,4259,712,88],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-97445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-sports","tag-alpine-skiing","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-newsletter-sign-up","tag-purgatory","tag-weather-news"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97445","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=97445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97445"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=97445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}