St Patrick’s Day Parade is always fun! Pagosa Weather Team: Tommy, Shawn, Jane, Arleen, Debbie (Select title of post to see picture)
Wednesday – 1 April 2026 – 8:00am
Included in this newsletter: Big Thank You Waves to Individual Donors & Our Sponsors; Community Outreach News; Calendar of events, CoCoRaHS and Contest Updates…
Personal Donations
Huge waves of thanks to: Juanita Simmons, Rick Holter, Lisa Gamber, Ruby Osberg, Dorothy Dawson, and William Hesselbach who made a generous donations in March! Thank you!!!
What your generous donation goes towards…
Your donations help us pay for our website manager, Do Engelhardt at Fluid Elements, the Pagosa Weather website, commercial weather subscriptions, and other business expenses. Most importantly your donations ensure that we will be able to provide this FREE service for everyone for years to come!
To make a donation, click on this link: How to Donate. You can donate by PayPal, Square with Visa or MasterCard, or DAF Direct. Checks can be made out and mailed to: Pagosa Weather, 56 Talisman Dr Unit 3, PMB 142, Pagosa Springs CO 81147. Thank you so much for your generosity!
Shawn and I have been truly touched by the support our followers have shown for us! THANK YOU!!!
Sponsors
We LOVE our Sponsors! They just amaze us with their support!
This Month’s Featured Sponsor: Pagosa Mountain Sports
Latest News from Amanda: As we enter our 11th year in business, we are currently clearing out our winter inventory to make room for spring and summer gear. We are offering deep discounts on all winter apparel and gear, including sales on our demo cross-country skis, snowshoes, fat bikes and snow tubes.
With the warmer weather, we are already seeing many people getting back on their bikes. We are now offering tune-up specials to ensure everyone’s equipment is running smoothly. We look forward to another great year of bike clinics, group rides, paddle days, river floats, and to helping both locals and visitors go find adventures!
Find Pagosa Mountain Sports downtown at 162 Pagosa Street, Bike shop in the alley behind.
2026 Sponsors! (Click on the sponsor’s name to follow link to their website.)
Blizzard Level Sponsor: Ski & Bow Rack
Snowman Level Sponsors
Terry’s Colorado Home Supply & Ace Hardware
Snowball Level Sponsors
Peggy Andrews, Independent Real Estate Broker
Dr. Leo Milner, D.C., Chiropractic Services
Pagosa Wilderness + Pagosa Rafting Outfitters + A1Taxi
Storm Sponsor: The Springs Resort
Community Outreach!
St Patrick’s Day Parade
We joined in all the fun of the “world’s shortest” St. Patrick’s Day Parade at the St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church. The event featured a festive, short parade with green-clad participants, bagpipers, on-site vendors, plus free hot food. We didn’t make time to get an Irish Coffee but heard they were good.
The weather was much more pleasant this year and only got a little breezy towards the end of the morning.
Pagosa Weather was there with a booth. Our Board Members Debbie McAlister and Jane Weitzel joined us. They let Shawn, Tommy and I slip away to join the parade! Thanks to everyone who stopped by to say “hello”. It was good to meet followers, say “hey” to old friends and meet folks who were not aware of our free service.
Wild Fire Training – Ignacio
Shawn and Arleen ventured down to the Sky Ute Casino to help out with The Four Corners Wildfire Academy. We taught two sections of the Intermediate Wildland Fire Behavior (S-290) course.
The course focuses on the relationship of fuels, topography, and weather and their influence on fire behavior. This course is designed for individuals with a couple seasons of experience in wildfire suppression operations. It builds toward understanding the difference between what fire behavior is currently being observed and what the potential fire behavior may be in the near future.
We taught a section of “Now-casting”, the ability to be able to forecast future weather by analyzing the current weather conditions by examining the clouds, inversions, and winds. The other section we taught was centered on our past winter weather and what we can expect for the next three months and what we can expect for the monsoon.
We had students from all over Colorado. The Academy grows every year as districts learn of the great course that the San Juan Pagosa District puts on. We look forward to returning next year to help educate these dedicated crews.
San Juan National Forest, Columbine District, Fire Management leadership in Bayfield
We went to Bayfield to give a presentation to the Columbine District Fire Management leadership team. We reviewed the abysmal winter, what we can expect through June, and what to expect for the monsoon season and how it will all impact the fire season.
The group of about 20 fire professionals, as always, had a lot of great questions which led to further discussion.
Meeting with USFS Pagosa District Fire Leadership
We met with Tracey and Brian, two of the Wild Fire Captains with the San Juan National Forest, Pagosa District. We discussed in detail the forecast over the next few months as they plan for prescribed burns. They are also concerned with resource allocation.
Shawn and I learned from them more about the coniferous trees as they go from being dormant to growing. We also learned how the local flora reacted to the unseasonably warm temps.
Children’s Weather Book
Pagosa Weather board members Jane Weitzel, Deborah McLain, and I have been meeting to discuss a children’s weather activity book.
We are very grateful to Gianna Marino, a local children’s book author, who met with us this week. Gianna has a very active imagination. She shared a lot of creative ideas of different directions to go. Thank you, Gianna for being so generous with your time!
The goal is to have the book out in September of 2027 and to share it with local children in Pagosa.
Earth Day!
The Southwest Organization for Sustainability Earth Day Celebration will be Sunday, April 26, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. A different location for inclement weather has been arranged for the same date.
With the theme “A World in a Teacup,” they will have more music this year, starting at 11 a.m., with a new sound system; a tea ceremony; food trucks; a Dust2 bike race; and more. The solar cars are returning after a break, and more exciting announcements will be sent to participants in the next few weeks.
Pagosa Weather will be there with a booth. We will be conducting a “Cloud in a bottle” experiment. Stop by to say hello and to collect a free sticker or yardstick.
Pagosa Weather Calendar News
- April 2nd, Thursday: PPOS – 3rd Grade
- April 17th, Friday: Chimney Rock Interpretive Association, Thunderstorm safety training.
- April 26th, Sunday: Earthday! Pagosa Weather will be there with a fun weather demo!
- May 5th, Tuesday: USFS Wild Fire Weather Refresher – Bayfield
- May 7th, Thursday: Rotary Club – open to Rotary members
- May 9th, Saturday: County Extension Fire Safety Brief – Open to Public
- May 26th, Tuesday: USFS Wild Fire Weather Refresher – Pagosa Springs
- June 12th & 13th. Pagosa Springs 17th Annual Car Show 2026. Friday, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM & Saturday, 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM. We’ll have a weather forecast out the week before.
- July 4th, 2026: America’s 250th birthday/Colorado’s 150th birthday Celebration, Yamaguchi Park. Pagosa Weather will have a booth with the story of weather history and will be passing out Pagosa Weather bike water bottles (filled with water).
- July 2nd – 5th: Park 2 Park Artisan & Food Market. We’ll have a weather forecast out the week before.
- August 15th: Grillin & Distillin. We’ll have a weather forecast out the week before.
- September 18th-20th: Colorfest! We’ll provide Aviation weather briefs and we’ll have a weather forecast out the week before.
- Pagosa Weather Winter Weather Wonder… Exact date in mid-November to be determined.
If any teachers or organizations would like a Pagosa Weather class or presentation, send an email to Arleen at pagosaweather@gmail.com.
CoCoRaHS Newsletter Updates
Pagosa Weather is the Archuleta County “CoCoRaHS Coordinator” and “Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador”.
HELP! Do you or do you have a friend that lives in one of the six areas highlighted below?
Archuleta County is well represented but we still have BIG data gaps. We really need a volunteer in southern Hinsdale County, west Highway 160, Arboles, Pagosa Junction, Dulce, and Upper Blanco. Sign up by filling out this web page: https://www.cocorahs.org/application.aspx. Or send us a note and we can send you more detailed information.
Perhaps, our May 2026 Newsletter will show fewer red circles!
Weather Data Lovers, CoCoRaHS has released CoCoRaHS Data Explorer, or “DEx” for short. This tool provides countless new ways to visualize and analyze data. Note: it is highly recommended to use larger screens when viewing the DEx.
Click here to go to the DEx Station Search page for data access to any station in the database. (open to the public)
The red circles are areas we could use a CoCoRaHS observer. Let us know if you can give us 5 to 10 minutes every morning to measure precip and snow. CoCoRaHS provides all the training you need.
Pagosa Weather February SUMMARY & March Outlook News
Shawn’s March SUMMARY & my April Outlook:Follow Link
Contest Updates
Special Thanks to our sponsor businesses that have stepped forward to sponsor our weather contests. They are a lot of fun!
Upcoming Contests
| Contest | Issue Date | Sponsor |
| Monsoon | May 15th | The Springs Resort |
Closed Contest
The 75 degree contest didn’t last long. We’ll have to make it 80 degrees next year!
Angela Costello was the winner of a $25 gift certificate from Pagosa Mountain Sports!!!
Stevens Field hit 75 degrees on March 19th at 2:35pm. Angela Costello had the closest guess with March 19th at 3:00pm (she was the first to enter that date/time).
Huge thanks to Amanda, Coquette, Janine, Jake and the rest of the team at Pagosa Mountain Sports for sponsoring this contest and for their support of Pagosa Weather.
Active Contest – First 24″ of Snow Winter 2025/2026
Forecast the date and time we measure 24” of snow depth on the ground. The person with the closest guess will get a $100 gift certificate to Alley House! Note: This contest is closed to any new guesses.
The Pagosa Weather Team will determine and verify the 24 inches of snow. The verification area is located about 7 miles north of Pagosa in O’Neal Park just off of North Piedra, past the two cattle guards at 8,030 feet elevation. We’ll let this contest run through mid-April to see if there is any storm on the horizon that could bring a few feet of snow – it happens!
Huge “Thanks” to Joni, Martin, Landon, Alisa and the entire team at Alley House for their support and sponsoring this contest!
Wolf Creek Seasonal Snowfall Weather Contest!
Forecast the total seasonal snowfall for Wolf Creek Ski Area on their final day of operations in 2026. The person with the closest guess wins a $50 gift certificate from SKI & BOW RACK!!! In addition, Ski & Bow Rack has offered HATS for the next closest guesses!
The ski area has had just 192″ of snow as of April 2nd, 2026.
Huge thanks to Brittany & Robert and the rest of the team at Ski & Bow Rack for the support of our weather contests and for being our Blizzard level sponsor!
*The ski resort average is 360”. Their final day of normal operation is expected to be in early April 2026.* No exact date yet…
Good luck to everyone!
| 188 | Abey | Nelson |
| 205 | Mike | Herdina |
| 287 | John | Farley |
| 290 | Mike | Buckingham |
| 293 | Ed | H |
| 297 | Gina | Doherty |
| 298 | Jane | Baker |
| 305 | Kim | Offerman |
| 308 | Irene | Mueller |
| 310 | Kris | Bos |
| 321 | Joan | Scott |
| 340 | Angel | Gutierrez |
| 345 | Mark | Langford |
| 356 | Dorothy | Matthews |
| 359 | Lisa | Vail |
| 363 | Phillip | Slusher |
| 363 | Janet | Pentis |
| 366 | Jeff | Witten |
| 367 | Joanne | Shelton |
| 376 | Meg | Wempe |
| 377 | Lisa | Gamber |
| 379 | Robert | BENCY |
| 379 | Robert | Bency |
| 383 | Troy | Rettig |
| 386 | Amanda | Gadomski |
| 387 | Brady | Turner |
| 389 | Brett | Anderson |
| 391 | Patty | Mallory |
| 401 | Katherine | Yoklavich |
| 402 | Dave | Vedera |
| 402 | Bryan | Weitzel |
| 405 | Jake | Cummins |
| 405 | Gerry | Whitlow |
| 406 | Michelle | Juneau |
| 407 | Eric | Lewis |
| 411 | Carol | Peterson |
| 412 | Steve | Wilson |
| 412 | Musetta | Wollenweber |
| 420 | Suzanne | Coe |
| 424 | Pamela | Knoche |
| 426 | Tina | Edwards |
| 429 | Mike | Offerman |
| 430 | Kate | Porter |
| 434 | Daniel | Fiedler |
| 439 | Marcus | Bourgart |
| 444 | Suzanne | Coe |
| 455 | Jared | Payne |
| 477 | Laura | Jones |
| 478 | Kenny | Rogers |
| 492 | Mary | Stokes |
| 526 | Julia | Kuzmina |
