Issued by The National Weather Service
Grand Junction, CO
10:41 am MST, Sat., Jan. 16, 2010
... SIGNIFICANT WEATHER PATTERN CHANGE ARRIVES NEXT WEEK...
HIGH PRESSURE OVER THE WESTERN UNITED STATES WILL BE BREAKING DOWN THIS WEEKEND... BRINGING AN END TO THE RECENT DRY WEATHER ACROSS EASTERN UTAH AND WESTERN COLORADO BY EARLY NEXT WEEK. THIS WILL ALLOW A SERIES OF MOIST PACIFIC STORMS TO PASS OVER THE REGION BEGINNING LATE MONDAY AND CONTINUING THROUGH FRIDAY.
AS THESE STORMS MOVE THROUGH... EXPECT WIDESPREAD SNOW TO DEVELOP OVER THE SOUTHERN MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS MONDAY NIGHT... SPREADING NORTH BY MIDWEEK. HOWEVER... WARMER AIR WILL EVENTUALLY FILTER INTO THE AREA... RESULTING IN SNOW CHANGING OVER TO RAIN FOR MANY OF THE LOWER VALLEYS... ESPECIALLY ACROSS SOUTHEAST UTAH AND WEST CENTRAL COLORADO. BY TUESDAY AFTERNOON... SNOW LEVELS ARE EXPECTED TO VARY BETWEEN 6000 AND 7000 FEET.
VERY HEAVY SNOWFALL WILL OCCUR OVER THE SOUTHERN MOUNTAINS OF WESTERN COLORADO AND EASTERN UTAH AS INDIVIDUAL DISTURBANCES PASS THROUGH. BY THE END OF THE WEEK... SNOWFALL AMOUNTS IN EXCESS OF 3 FEET WILL BE POSSIBLE OVER THE HIGHEST ELEVATIONS OF SOUTHWEST COLORADO... WITH SIGNIFICANT ACCUMULATIONS ALSO POSSIBLE AT LOWER ELEVATIONS FROM CORTEZ EAST THROUGH PAGOSA SPRINGS.