A "bomb cyclone" formed off the coast of Oregon and northern California Tuesday, bringing everything from strong winds to freezing rain and heavy snow to the Pacific coast.
In case you forgot from last March, a bomb cyclone is a low pressure system that deepens by 24 millibars (a unit of pressure) in just 24 hours.
This same storm will drift east over the next few days, and likely bring heavy, long duration snow to the San Juan mountains in southwest Colorado.
Model forecasts for this system are impressive to look at, but still a bit unreliable. They show the bulls-eye of 2 to 4 feet well in the center of the San Juans, but are likely vastly over estimating accumulating snow from Thursday through Saturday in the surrounding towns like Telluride, Ouray, Creed, and even Durango.
A much more accurate forecast is depicted here from the National Weather Service branch in Grand Junction. They are still calling for 2 to 4 feet in the central San Juan Mountains, but much more manageable amounts from Telluride to Durango and out to Pagosa Springs.
Regardless, travel into and through the southwest mountains from Thursday through Saturday will be slow, dangerous, and should be done with extreme caution.
