textproduct: Grand Junction

KEY MESSAGES

- Cooler, wetter weather settles in today through Wednesday morning. Sloppy travel conditions are expected above 9,000 feet.

- Sub-freezing temperatures are expected for some valleys early Wednesday morning. A Freeze Watch is in effect for the susceptible areas.

- After a brief mid-week warm up, colder and unsettled weather returns to the region Thursday night into the weekend.

DISCUSSION

Issued at 1105 PM MDT Mon Apr 13 2026

Models are in good agreement with each other and with satellite imagery for the most part. One notable difference is that the satellite imagery shows the shortwave over southeastern Idaho to be deeper, down into the H500 and even H700 levels, and a more wrapped up low than the open wave depicted in the models. Light isolated to scattered showers are increasing in coverage as they move through eastern Utah and Western Colorado. To the west over western Utah, closer to the low, coverage is more widespread with embedded isolated thunderstorms. Look for this activity to start moving into our region around midnight and increasing through the overnight as showers and thunderstorms spread northeast across region. With the low tracking to the northeast across the region through the morning hours, pushing east of the Divide in the afternoon, showers and thunderstorms will diminish through the afternoon and evening with only a few lingering showers mostly through the central Colorado mountains overnight into Wednesday. There is no real defined front with this system, but with cold air advection aloft widespread precipitation, temperatures will cool about ten degrees from Monday's highs, or to five to ten degrees below normal for mid April. With skies clearing out overnight Tuesday, temperatures in many of the lower valleys will drop below the freezing mark. Because there is still uncertainty with the morning low, continued the Freeze Watch across eastern Utah and Western Colorado late Tuesday night through Wednesday morning.

COLDER SYSTEM FRIDAY AND COOLER AND UNSETTLED WEATHER BEYOND:

Wednesday and Thursday will bring a brief warm up, but Thursday will see another round of gusty winds ahead of the next system, another low pressure system that drops in from the Pacific Northwest. This next system looks to have a strong cold front associated with it with temperatures falling 15 to 25 degrees behind the front leading to a hard freeze possible Saturday morning. It's too soon to say how much snow this system will produce, but snow may drop into the lower valleys behind the front. Stay tuned through the next few day as we sort this out.

AVIATION /12Z TAFS THROUGH 12Z WEDNESDAY/

Issued at 522 AM MDT Tue Apr 14 2026

Scattered to widespread showers with embedded thunderstorms will lead to a complex forecast over the next 12 to 18 hours. A mixture of VFR and MVFR conditions are in place and expect temporary to PROB30 chances of IFR/LIFR are possible as heavier showers and lower clouds develop. Things do not look to begin to improve until mid to late afternoon with a return to VFR prevailing at most TAF sites again by 15/00Z.

GJT WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

CO...Freeze Watch from late tonight through Wednesday morning for COZ001-002-007-008-011-020>023. UT...Freeze Watch from late tonight through Wednesday morning for UTZ024.