Snow, a slight break, then more snow!

3-24-21: 3pm Update:

Edit: I placed our closed low in the wrong position this morning and have made adjustments to that image as well as the one below. It is located to our SW, between east central AZ and west central NM and moving ENE. It has slowed a bit today so snow will continue to fall in our area into the early hours of Thursday. Since some of the snow will fall after sunset, look for some more accumulation tonight. This image is water vapor, so light areas indicate where there is moisture in the mid levels. Since our radar is useless this time of the year, this is all we have to give us an idea of where snow may be falling. (We are too far from the Grand Junction and Albuquerque radar sites and only thunderstorms show up) As the low moves past us, look for a lull in the snow tomorrow morning. This low will cause some grief tonight across north Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana spawning severe storms and a few tornadoes. Tomorrow it will bring even more powerful storms to the SE states, with tornadoes a real possibility.

As for us, our next storm in the form of a deep trough is digging into CA and Nevada this afternoon and will start impacting our weather as early as Thursday afternoon. This trough has the potential to give us even more precipitation than our current closed low. Snow rates ramp up on Thursday night and will continue through Friday evening. We could get some thunder snow and some wind gusts close to 30mph on Friday as the trough moves through. Sunshine and temperatures in the upper 40’s return on Saturday. By Sunday we will be back to the 50’s when Shawn takes over posting again. At this time it looks like he can do lots of skiing because there won’t be much to talk about!

OK, let’s dig into my snow forecast…

Existing watches and advisories expire this evening but I would expect them to re-appear by tonight or tomorrow morning as the new storm approaches.

For the valley between now and Saturday morning: 4-6 inches of snow that could accumulate tonight and tomorrow night.

For the near mountain locations 8000-9000 feet: 5-7 inches of snow that could accumulate tonight and tomorrow morning.

For the mountains between now and Saturday morning: 10-20 inches of snow.

-Mark Langford

3-24-21: 8:30am…Snow accumulated last night and more will fall today and this evening.

As forecast, we had some accumulation last in our area. I found 2.5 inches of snow on our property (0.28 liquid) this morning about a mile north of Hatcher Lake and Arleen reports 4.7 inches of snow and 0.52 inches of precipitation at their home. I was surprised to see that Wolf Creek Ski area reported only 3 inches of snow overnight. They should see more snow today and there continues to be a Winter Storm Watch for that area. Below are some snow reports from COCORAHS members in Archuleta County.

Our low pressure is currently located to our SE in New Mexico this morning and will continue to track east during the day, sending us more moisture and giving us a chance for more snow today and this evening until around midnight. With our spring sun angle, very little if any snow will accumulate during the day.

Our next system moves in tomorrow afternoon, so there is definitely more snow on the way! I’ll have a complete post this afternoon.

How much snow fell at your place and where?