This week ends with cool sunshine

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) - Early morning snow dusted parts of the Grand Valley. The falling snow ended long ago, and the minor accumulation melted as sun broke through the clouds this afternoon.

High Pressure Brings Fair Weather To End This Week

Our next weather maker is high pressure centered over the Pacific Northwest. That high pressure will expand into Western Colorado, offering more sunshine for Thursday and Friday. The north-to-south wind flow around the eastern edge of the high pressure will keep a steady cold air flow from Canada alive. The sun will offer some limited warming, but we aren’t likely to turn significantly warmer until this weekend. That warming won’t be much bigger, and it will happen ahead of an approaching storm system.

Snow Possible Saturday Night

A low pressure wave will ride the mainly west-to-east flow of the jet stream up around 30,000 feet altitude. That low pressure wave will track over Colorado late Friday and Saturday. It will bring snow to the mountains and perhaps a small increase in the potential for snow on the Western Slope on Saturday night.

Bigger Snow Possible Starting Monday

A bigger storm system will arrive on Monday, bringing snow that begins Monday morning and could fall through Tuesday morning. It’s really too early at this point to know its direct impact. In fact, there’s some indication the strongest part of this storm system may pass just south of us. That exact track matters as it could mean the difference between 3-4 inches of snow versus a dusting or less. We’ve got plenty of time to watch this, and we’ll be updating you as more information is available.

Our Next 24 Hours

This evening will be be mostly clear. We’ll cool steadily from upper 20s around 6 PM to mid-20s by 10 PM. The rest of tonight will become clear. Low temperatures by morning will be near 16 degrees around Grand Junction, 12 degrees around Montrose, 15 degrees around Delta, and a very cold 3 degrees around Cortez. Thursday will be partly to mostly sunny. High temperatures in the afternoon will be near 34 degrees around Grand Junction, 31 degrees around Montrose, 32 degrees around Delta, and 31 degrees around Cortez.

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