Rain and snow today, then a drier weekend

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KJCT) - We’ll once again see one more day of rain and snow around the Western Slope today, then things will turn drier and cooler into the weekend.

Scattered Rain and Snow Again

Spotty rain and snow is already off to an early start around portions of the Western Slope, and that rain and snow is expected to only increase through the afternoon. Most of the rain and snow starts out over the higher elevations, then we’ll start seeing rain chances increasing over the valleys into the afternoon. Timing for the best coverage of mountain rain and valley snow looks to be from 4 PM to 8 PM. A cold front ushers in even colder air into the evening, and we could see valley rain briefly transition over to snow before we start drying out into the overnight hours. 6 PM to 10 PM looks to be the main window of seeing some snowflakes in Grand Junction, Delta, and Montrose. Snow will be shoved out of the region as the front continues to pass through late tonight and into very early Saturday morning.

Snowfall Totals

The window of opportunity to see snow in the valleys this evening is so small that we’ll likely only see a trace to as much as 1 to 2 inches of snow in Grand Junction, Delta, and Montrose. We’ll also see similar snowfall amounts in and around Rifle, Glade Park, Nucla, Dove Creek, Cortez, Durango, and Gunnison. 2 to 6 inches of snow is a pretty solid general idea for snowfall in the higher elevations, including the Grand Mesa, the Book Cliffs, the High Country, and the Elk Mountains. Looks like the most snow could fall right around Telluride and the northern San Juan Mountains, where up to 9 inches of snow is still possible through early Saturday morning.

Drier and Colder Weekend

Some scattered to spotty snowy conditions are possible in and around Interstate 70 through the northern portions of the area through the day on Saturday. It shouldn’t be anything overly significant, but something to watch for if you’re headed over toward the Front Range tomorrow. Most of the rest of us will continue to stay dry, but cloudy to mostly cloudy skies will keep high temperatures firmly pinned into the middle and upper 30s to lower 40s. Teens and 20s will be very widespread each night. We’ll see a little more sunshine on Sunday, but it won’t do very much at all to help temperatures out. Expect highs once again mostly in the middle to upper 30s and lower 40s.

Warming Up Early Next Week

Monday will still be on the cool side with highs in the lower to middle 40s, but we’ll at least start seeing significantly more sunshine move into the region. We’ll really start feeling the effects of that on Tuesday with mostly sunny skies and highs surging into the lower and middle 50s. We’ll be about as warm as clouds increase again on Wednesday, then our next chance of rain and snow moves in Wednesday night and into Thursday.

Copyright 2023 KJCT. All rights reserved.