It’s the winter storm we’ve been waiting for, and it’s not over yet.
“It’s expected to continue all day,” National Weather Service weather watcher Jim Andrus said Friday. “It sure blew the forecast to smithereens.”
The weather came in Thursday night with a mix of rain and snow; snow started at 9 p.m. in Cortez, after starting with drizzle in Towaoc about 7 p.m.
By 8 a.m. Friday, Andrus had measured 3.2 inches of snowfall. “There’s probably another inch by 10 a.m.,” he said.
As of 11 a.m., more than 1,200 people are out of power, according to Empire Electric’s Outage Map.
The snow continued to fall steadily through the morning, with no wind to disrupt its dance.
“There’s no wind blowing it off the trees,” Andrus said. “And it’s a heavy snow; it might break some limbs.”
People are out shoveling their driveways and sidewalks, and can’t keep up with the accumulation; as soon as a path was cleared, it was covered again.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for the Upper Dolores Basin in effect until noon Friday, but with a 50% chance of snowfall through the evening. The storm was expected to pass Saturday morning.
So far, there’s 0.91 inches of total precipitation, in terms of liquid water equivalence.
That’s six times the amount recorded in all of January, which had a scant 0.15 inches. Total snowfall last month was 2.4 inches, 30% of the monthly normal.
“I’m sure glad to see something put a dent in this winter drought we’re having,” said Andrus.
The monthly average precipitation for February is 0.96 inches, a number we’ve almost reached in 12 hours’ time.
“A word to the wise? Drive carefully. Walk carefully, too,” Andrus said. “And put a shovel in your trunk – you might need it.”
