Winter Storm in Central Gunnison and Uncompahgre River Basin, Colorado

Generally 6 to 12 inches of snow fell across the area with locally higher amounts of 15.8 inches reported at Crawford 3.6 SW. Wind gusts were in the 35 to 50 mph range during the event with peak wind gust of 51 mph at the Montrose Regional Airport at the start of the event.

Very strong winds occurred ahead of a strong colf front that resulted in a high wind event and snow levels dropping to all valley floors after frontal passage. Signficant moisture supplied by an Atmospheric River fueled this storm system as it dropped in from the Intermountain West and brought feet of snow across the northern and central mountains of northeast Utah and western Colorado, with much less across southwest Colorado. Some lower northern and central valleys of western Colorado also saw significant snow with near white out conditions and banded snowfall or squall conditions at times. Winds continued to be strong throughout this event with gusts in the 40 to 50 mph range in the valleys and 60 to 80 mph range in the mountains on average.