Wednesday’s wind-fueled snowstorm is just the beginning of a series of storms that will hit Southwest Colorado over the next seven days.
Though earlier reports indicated Thursday would see a reprieve from the snowfall, National Weather Service meteorologist Mark Miller said a new system moved in Thursday morning right after the one that rolled out Wednesday night.
“The main system that hit Tuesday and Wednesday is gone,” he said. “This is a new system coming in. It’s a strong low-pressure system coming from the California coast.”
Miller said the most recent system should move through by Friday.
“It’s going to travel over Southwest Colorado for the next 24 hours and then clear out by Friday afternoon,” he said.
Durango-area residents should have time to dig themselves out from the snow on Friday evening and Saturday before the next wave of storms hit.
“Saturday will be nice and dry, but then Sunday we’re going to see the next series of systems go through,” he said. “Sunday’s storm will bring more snow, and then another low-pressure system will be coming in next Tuesday and sticking around until Thursday. It’s just a series of low-pressure systems dropping along the West Coast ejecting eastward.”
According to Miller, the wind gusts experienced Wednesday measured between 50 to 70 mph. The Durango-area wind gusts were clocked at 68 mph.
Miller said the extreme gusts made it difficult to measure snowfall around the region.
“The wind really made everything worse,” he said. “I’m sure the snowfall measurements we got from the last 24 hours are as accurate as we can get considering the gusts.”
The town of Durango reported 2½ inches of new snow from Tuesday night through Thursday morning. Northwest of Durango reported 4½ inches and southwest of Durango reported 6 inches.
Pagosa Springs reported 4.4 inches of snow, with 8 inches to the north and south. Bayfield reported 4-5 inches of snow, and Cortez reported 6 inches.
The San Juan Mountains were hit with 8 inches to over a foot of snow, which was good news for ski areas. Purgatory Ski Resort and Wolf Creek Ski Area got 13 inches of new snow, and Telluride Ski Resort got 4 new inches.
The heavy snow and extreme winds were not good for travelers. The Colorado Department of Transportation is advising caution, especially when driving over mountain passes.
“All CDOT maintenance patrols have been working through the night,” CDOT spokeswoman Adair Christensen wrote in an email to The Durango Herald. “Additionally, at daybreak, crews began avalanche mitigation operations on passes that remained closed this morning.”
As of Thursday, three crews were working to open the mountain corridor on U.S. Highway 550 from just north of Purgatory to just south of Ouray. Coal Bank and Molas passes south of Silverton remained closed Thursday afternoon, with CDOT reporting crews 50% completed with mitigation.
Red Mountain Pass between Silverton and Ouray on Highway 550 was likely to remain closed Thursday night.
Wolf Creek Pass was open on the east side, though the west side area from Southfork to Wolf Creek Ski Area was closed on Thursday closed. Lizard Head Pass was open Thursday, though travelers are warned to proceed with caution.
“Because we do not know what slide cleanup will entail, we do not know the exact times of the passes opening,” Christensen said. “Additional safety closures could be set in place as they are dependent on adverse weather conditions that are forecast through Friday.”
Wednesday’s wind and snowfall also caused several power outages, according to La Plata Electric Associaton spokeswoman Hillary Knox.
“We had a few,” Knox said. “At the peak yesterday morning, we had 10 outages impacting 707 members. The largest outage yesterday was out near the airport. The rest were scattered around our service territory.”
Knox said the outages were restored quickly on Wednesday, and there were no further outages Thursday even with the continuing snowfall.
“All members were restored by noon (on Wednesday),” she said. “So far today, we have not had any additional outages. This is a testament to the great infrastructure improvement and maintenance work our crews have completed and continue to complete. Five years ago, a storm like this would have resulted in multiday outages.”
Durango-La Plata County Airport also struggled with the high winds and snow from Wednesday’s storm.
“It was a rough day yesterday at the airport,” said Brad Riddle, airport operations and project manager. “There were really high winds at about 60 knots. That and the snow made for really low visibility, maybe about less than half a mile. There were quite a few cancellations. There also wasn’t a single flight coming in all day until one flight from Denver in the evening. It was the last flight of the day.”
Riddle said passengers were able to get out on flights the next morning.
“Luckily, there’s been no cancellations today (Thursday),” he said. “We also added a flight to make up for yesterday.”
Riddle said in the eight years of employment at the airport, he had never witnessed anything like the winds that came through the Durango area on Wednesday.
Further information about flight cancellations can be found on the airport’s website.
Further information on power outages in La Plata County can be found on LPEA’s website.
Information on road conditions and closures in Southwest Colorado can be found on cotrip.org.
molsen@durangoherald.com
