A slow-moving storm brought snow and rain Friday to Southwest Colorado.
Radar systems showed the storm moving in a counterclockwise motion Friday afternoon, like a galaxy orbiting a super-massive black hole, with the Four Corners positioned near the center.
Another storm to the east was blocking Friday’s storm from making a swift exit, said Dennis Phillips, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.
The coldest temperatures were over the Four Corners, including Cortez, Durango and the southern San Juan Mountains, he said. The system was creating thunderstorms in northern Colorado, he said.
“The system is very big,” he said. “It extends from Wyoming all the way through the Southwest. There is a system downstream that’s blocking this one from swinging through, so that’s why it’s pretty expansive and spinning a lot of stuff in the area.”
The snow and rain are expected to stick around through Saturday morning before heading east. Forecasters predicted scattered showers through Saturday in Durango.
Phillips called it a fairly typical storm for this time of year.
“This is what Colorado is all about, sunny one day and snow the next,” he said.
Forecasters predict a similar system to blow through the region on Monday and Tuesday. A winter storm warning was in effect for the Southwest Colorado mountains from noon Monday to 6 p.m. Tuesday. Eight to 14 inches of snow were forecast for the San Juan Mountains, affecting towns including Telluride, Rico, Hesperus, Ouray, Silverton and Crested Butte.
Montezuma County was expected to get mostly rain, with intermittent snowfall on Tuesday.
“This time of year, with these storms, sometimes the models have to catch up,” Phillips said. “Right now, it’s not favoring a lot of southern/southwest Colorado ... but that could definitely change.”
shane@durangoherald.com
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