Today’s hard frost produced some beautiful ice crystals on my nearby Aspen tree. © 2023-Mark Langford
Saturday – 4 March. 2023 – 11:45am
The past…
At Stevens Field the high yesterday was 39 and the low this morning was 7 degrees. Humidity bottomed out at 40%. Winds gusted to 21 mph yesterday.
Precipitation summary: There was no precipitation to summarize yesterday!
Pagosa Springs historical data
| Average High | Record High / Year | Average Low | Record Low / Year |
| 43 | 62/ 1986 | 13 | -18/ 1916 |
Forecast discussion…
A nice day today with only a few cirrus clouds drifting by. Tomorrow we will have very similar conditions with one noticeable exception…the wind! Zonal flow (west-east) along with one of those pesky “jet streaks”, will increase winds in the valley to 20-30mph with gusts to over 40mph and over 60mph in the mountains. While we won’t see any snow in the valley, there will be periods during the day when it will seem like it is snowing as existing snow gets moved around from the wind! The mountains could see up to an inch of snow, but blowing snow will be the biggest issue.
Monday-Wednesday look pretty tame with mostly sunny skies and SW winds 15-20 with gusts to 25 (it is March). Models are forecasting another chance for snow on Thursday-Friday. As of post time, this looks to be a light duty storm with only 1-2 inches for the valley and 5-10 inches for the mountains. One nice thing about March is that the sun is as high in the sky as October, so if it is sunny, most snow under a couple inches, does not have to be shoveled or blown off our roads and driveways…nature takes care of that problem quite nicely!
Shawn takes over tomorrow.
5-Day Forecast…
The rest of the day-Partly cloudy with highs in the low to mid 40’s. NW winds 10-15 with gusts to 20mph.
Sunday: Mostly sunny with SW winds 20-30mph and gusts to over 40mph. Blowing snow. 65mph winds for the mountains with 0-1 inches of snow and lots of blowing snow!
Monday-Wednesday: Partly cloudy with lows in the teens and low 20’s and highs in the low to mid 40’s. SW winds 10-15 with gusts to 20mph.
Thursday: Mostly cloudy with a chance for light snow showers. Lows in the teens and low 20’s and highs in the upper 30’s to low 40’s. SW winds 10-15 with gusts to 20mph.
Check out my Pagosa Peak Cam (myearthcam.com) for watching hikers, bikers and of course, the weather.
-Mark Langford
