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Little chance of drought relief in the WMV region with the first March storm system

Weather Update Monday, March 2025

In February, the Wet Mountain Valley (WMV) region officially entered the first stage of drought conditions, but that is not unusual for the first two months of the year, as brutally cold temperatures often lack significant moisture in storms that pass through the region. March and April are the snowiest and wettest months of the year, and those big spring snowstorms can bust a drought in a single storm.

Last week, meteorologists spotted a low-pressure system that many hoped would bring significant snowfall to most of the Colorado Mountains and Front Range. However, while a thin band of snow may develop south of Denver and in the Central Mountains, it is pretty confident that for Custer and Western Fremont Counties, we are regulated to locals’ favorite weather event – wind.

The first waves of an upcoming mostly downsloping wind storm arrived at 12:30 p.m. Monday. Notice the little squalls over the mountains, but not much is getting over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the east or north.

Kody Wilson the Weather Guy expects the region locally to be stuck in a “downsloping” wind pattern as the low-pressure system moves through eastern Colorado. Downsloping in Colorado is a weather phenomenon where strong, warm, and dry airflow creates wind down the leeward side of the Rocky Mountains, in this case, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. This can lead to damaging winds and low pressure, but it often prevents snow. Already at 1 p.m. on Monday, March 3, the winds were gusting heavily along the Valley Floor and through the hills near the Arkansas River in Howard. Small snow showers are passing over the Sangres, but it is unlikely that much of that moisture will get over the mountains.

The US Weather Service in Pueblo is calling for trace amounts of snow for most of the region, with up to two inches in areas where bands of moisture manage to get over the mountains.

Another system will move through the state later this week, but once again, it is unlikely that significant moisture is present to bring snow to this region.

-Jordan Hedberg Â