Wind advisory Sunday: gusts up to 50 mph in the Four Corners

The National Weather Service has issued a wind advisory covering the Four Corners for all of Sunday, forecasting south winds of 20 to 30 mph with gusts of up to 50 mph. Montezuma County posted the advisory to its Facebook page at 12:22 p.m. Saturday.

Graphic: Cortez Current. Source: National Weather Service

The advisory runs from 9 a.m. Sunday to midnight Sunday night. On the Colorado side it covers the weather service’s Four Corners/Upper Dolores River and Paradox Valley/Lower Dolores River forecast areas. It also extends into Utah, covering the Arches/Grand Flat, Canyonlands/Natural Bridges and southeast Utah areas.

The weather service says the gusty winds will blow around unsecured objects, that tree limbs could be blown down and that a few power outages may result. It adds that, on top of the strong surface winds, a greater potential for thunderstorms could produce locally higher gusts at times.

Its advice to drivers is to use extra caution, because winds that strong can make driving difficult, especially for high-profile vehicles.

A wind advisory is a step below a high wind warning. The weather service issues one when it expects sustained winds or gusts strong enough to be a nuisance or a hazard, rather than the stronger and more damaging conditions a warning describes.

The advisory was reshared by Montezuma County on its Facebook page, where the county regularly passes on weather service bulletins for the area.