Southwest Colorado’s high country is in line for 12 to 18 inches of snow above 10,000 feet

The National Weather Service office in Grand Junction put the San Juan Mountains under a winter storm warning on Sunday, November 1, citing 12 to 18 inches of new snow, with locally higher amounts possible, at elevations above 10,000 feet. Wind gusts up to 45 mph were forecast to accompany the snow. The warning was set to expire at noon Monday, November 2, which puts the worst of the storm squarely in the overnight hours and the Monday morning commute.

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The zones covered by the warning read like a map of the range’s best-known mountain towns and passes: Telluride, Lizard Head Pass, Ouray, Red Mountain Pass, Lake City, Silverton, Molas Pass, Coal Bank Pass, Rico and Hesperus. Forecasters wrote that travel could be very difficult to impossible, especially during the Monday morning commute. Snow at that rate on high passes can close roads for hours at a stretch, and the Monday commute falls inside the warning window.

San Juan zones named in the Grand Junction warning

The warning text, issued at 7:12 a.m. MST on November 1 by the Grand Junction forecast office, is archived in the Weather Service’s winter storm warning bulletin for the region. It describes heavy snow expected above 10,000 feet, total accumulations of 12 to 18 inches and gusts to 45 mph. The same figures were relayed by Meteored writer Timothy McGill in a November 1 forecast roundup that also quoted the Grand Junction office directly.

Wind is the amplifier. A 45 mph gust turns fresh powder into blowing snow that cuts visibility on exposed stretches such as Red Mountain Pass, and the office’s guidance to drivers was short: “Slow down and use caution while traveling.” Road conditions can be checked by calling 511, the number the bulletin gives, and Colorado’s COtrip traveler information site publishes winter road conditions, traffic incidents and camera views for the state’s highways.

Pueblo’s separate warning for Wolf Creek and Cumbres passes

A second office handles the eastern half of the range. The Pueblo forecast office issued its own warning at 6:06 p.m. MST on Sunday for the eastern San Juan Mountains above 10,000 feet, a zone that includes Wolf Creek Pass and Cumbres Pass. Its text calls for heavy snow with up to 10 additional inches, gusts up to 50 mph that could cause blowing and drifting snow, and an end time of 11 a.m. MST Monday. Travel, it said, could be very difficult, especially Sunday night and Monday morning.

The two bulletins use different arithmetic. Grand Junction speaks of total accumulations from a storm that was just beginning in its western zones, while Pueblo, writing in the evening, counts what remained to fall. Adding 10 inches to 12 to 18 inches would therefore be a mistake. Pueblo also gave travelers a practical list, keeping an extra flashlight, food and water in the vehicle if travel proves necessary, which is the kind of advice issued when a pass could be closed with cars on it. Wolf Creek and Cumbres are both high-elevation crossings, and the 10,000-foot threshold in the Pueblo text matches the one Grand Junction used for its western zones, so the two offices are describing one storm from opposite sides of the range.

Utah’s advisory and the wider Rockies pattern

The snow is not confined to Colorado. McGill wrote that sticking snow was expected at high elevations of Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado on Monday and Tuesday, with the heaviest accumulations in the central Rockies. A winter weather advisory covered northeast Utah through early Monday. The Salt Lake City forecast office’s page described a cold front bringing accumulating snow mainly above 8,000 feet, with the worst travel from Sunday evening into Monday morning and the caution that travel could be difficult at times over mountain routes. That page did not list snow totals.

What is still unsettled after noon Monday

Expiration of a warning does not mean the roads are clear. Snow already on the ground can drift for hours after the last flakes, and plows sometimes need most of a day to reach the high passes. The Meteored forecast also pointed to a West Coast system expected Thursday and Friday, bringing wintry weather to high elevations of the Pacific Northwest and Intermountain West, so the region does not get a long break before the next round.

What the sources cannot yet say is how much snow actually fell and which passes closed. Those answers depend on observations after the warnings lapse, and the Grand Junction office’s public page at the time of reading did not yet carry a post-storm summary. Because the warning allows for locally higher amounts, individual ridges and north-facing slopes could exceed the 18-inch upper figure while nearby valleys below 10,000 feet see far less, and a single mountain town can sit on either side of that line. Final totals, locally higher amounts included, will be a matter for the forecast offices’ storm reports and Colorado’s road-condition updates.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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