textproduct: Grand Junction

KEY MESSAGES

- Continued warm with scattered mountain showers through end of week.

- An approaching storm will deliver more widespread showers Saturday and beyond.

- A cold front arrives late Sunday and early Monday, bringing mountain snow and colder temperatures to start the work week.

DISCUSSION

Issued at 119 PM MDT Wed Apr 8 2026

Near Term

Broad anticyclonic flow will stretch across the West for the near term. A series of shortwave disturbances push ashore and flatten out the ridge over the next 24 hours. This will send a couple pulses of moisture across the Great Basin with some intermittent cloud cover here on the West Slope, along with non zero precipitation chances for the mountains on Thursday and Friday, as orographics continue to work on melting snowpacks and incoming upper level moisture. Temperatures will remain 10-15 degrees above climatology through Saturday, given a lack of cold air intrusion. Clouds and precipitation will have some local impacts to those temperatures, but widespread cooling is not expected.

Weekend Pattern Shift

A digging wave along the West Coast will send another pattern shift across the West Slope Saturday. Showers and thunderstorms develop in the pre-frontal regime Saturday and Sunday as a series of vorticity maxima pulse through along a jet max rounding the base of the deepening trough. Timing of this feature Saturday night will deliver a rain/snow mix to the high country. Snow levels drop to around 8500 feet across the mountains Sunday morning. The cold front will finally make its way through sometime early Monday, with the coldest air dipping into the region Monday and Tuesday. Snow totals for the mountains are bouncing around a bit this far out, but it does look like a few inches can be expected near and above pass level through Tuesday. Some of this snow will likely melt out during the afternoons. Morning lows in some of our lower valleys could push near freezing early next week. Afternoon highs will trend a few degrees below normal in the wake of the front too. High pressure looks to build back in Wednesday with a warming trend in the works.

AVIATION /18Z TAFS THROUGH 18Z THURSDAY/

Issued at 1122 AM MDT Wed Apr 8 2026

Mostly clear skies with few to scattered mid-level clouds and VFR conditions are expected to prevail throughout the TAF period. The biggest impacts will be gusts of 20-28 kts this afternoon. Gusts of this strength are less likely at KMTJ, KVEL, and KCNY, though are likely at all other terminals.

GJT WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

CO...None. UT...None.