A Christmas storm dumped 3.2 inches of snow in Cortez and about 6 inches in Dolores overnight Tuesday.
For Cortez, the heavy, wet snow had a snow-water equivalent of about 5-to-1, said Jim Andrus, local weather observer for the National Weather Service. When the 3.2 inches of snow is melted off, .64 inch of water remains.
A dry, powdery snow has a snow-water equivalent ratio of about 10-to-1, meaning that 10 inches of powder produces 1 inch of water.
Montezuma County Undersheriff Vern Knuckles said the storm caused no major accidents. Snow on highways and streets were melting Wednesday morning, and Lizard Head Pass was open. CDOT cameras showed icy, snowpacked conditions on Colorado Highway 145 near Rico.
The heavy snow brought down a small power line in Dolores on Wednesday afternoon, but there were no power outages. Empire Electric Association, Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office and Dolores Fire and Rescue responded to the 900 block of Central Avenue after a call came out at 2:12 p.m. Once a large Empire Electric truck arrived on scene about 2:40 p.m., lineman were able to repair the damaged line in about 15 minutes
Telluride reported a foot of snow in the past 48 hours, and Purgatory reported 8 inches in the past 72 hours.
Since November, Cortez has had 16.1 inches of snow, which is about 140 percent of the normal 11.5 inches.
“It is a real nice start to winter,” he said.
The National Weather Service’s winter storm warning expired on Wednesday morning. There is a 40 percent chance for snow Thursday night and Friday in Cortez, Andrus said. After that, temperatures are expected to drop, with highs in the 20s and lows below 10 degrees into early next week.
