The National Weather Service has put a flood watch in effect from Wednesday afternoon through Friday morning for parts of southwest Colorado and southeast Utah, including the Four Corners and the Upper Dolores River area, the Cortez Current reported, citing the weather service bulletin reshared by Montezuma County on Tuesday. The Colorado areas named in the bulletin are the Animas River Basin, the Four Corners and Upper Dolores River, the San Juan River Basin and the Southwest San Juan Mountains.

The bulletin says flooding caused by excessive rainfall is possible. Strong thunderstorms capable of producing heavy rain could develop on Wednesday afternoon, followed by widespread moderate to heavy rainfall from a surge of tropical moisture from Wednesday night through Friday morning, according to the weather service. Excessive runoff may flood rivers, creeks, streams, recently burned areas and other low-lying and flood-prone places, and storm drains and ditches may become clogged with debris. A watch is not a warning: the weather service issues a flood watch when conditions make flooding possible, and its bulletin tells people to monitor later forecasts and be alert for possible flood warnings.

Counties are preparing on the ground. The Rocky Mountain Dispatch reported that county public works crews are inspecting drainage culverts and positioning heavy earth-moving equipment near known mudslide zones along U.S. Highway 550 and U.S. Highway 160, that hydrologists are watching recent burn scars in the San Juans — where scorched soil sheds water instead of absorbing it — and that state transportation officials have warned mountain passes along the Million Dollar Highway, the U.S. 550 route through the San Juans, may see rockfall and sudden lane closures as saturated soil destabilises canyon walls. County sheriff offices have established sandbag staging sites in flood-prone subdivisions, the Dispatch said. Drivers on U.S. 550 and U.S. 160 — corridors used heavily by through traffic and trucks crossing the Four Corners — should expect possible closures and should never drive through flooded roadways.

River forecasts show why officials are watching Friday closely. A local forecast summary of National Weather Service river data, published by Durango Weather Guy on Tuesday, put the San Juan River at Pagosa Springs at a forecast peak of 10.75 feet early on Friday — above its 10.5-foot flood stage — while the Animas River at Durango was forecast to reach 6.5 feet, just below its 7-foot action stage, and the Animas at Cedar Hill 9.09 feet, below its 9.5-foot action stage. Those are forecasts, not observed flooding, and they can change as the storm arrives. The Watchers, summarising the Weather Prediction Center, said the same moisture surge — linked to the remnants of Trudy — brings a slight risk of excessive rainfall across the Southwest on Wednesday, with burn scars, desert washes and steep terrain of particular concern. Sources: National Weather Service bulletin via Cortez Current, October 20, 2026; Rocky Mountain Dispatch, October 21, 2026; Durango Weather Guy river forecast summary, October 20, 2026; The Watchers / NWS Weather Prediction Center, October 20, 2026.