The snow that fell Thursday on Durango is indicative of why the snowpack in the southwestern corner of the state is at a four-year low.
Rege Leach, Colorado Division of Water Resources engineer in Durango, said the snowpack in the San Miguel, Dolores, Animas and San Juan basins on Jan. 31 was 73 percent of average, one point better than the state average as a whole.
The most recent storm didn’t add much to those anemic totals.
Crews were ready for heavy snow Thursday, but early forecasts of 8 to 12 inches in the high country hadn’t materialized as of Thursday afternoon, Colorado Department of Transportation spokeswoman Nancy Shanks said.
Roads could still be icy, though, and chains were required for all commercial vehicles on Coal Bank, Molas and Red Mountain passes, Shank said.
Ellen Heffernan, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Grand Junction, said Thursday’s storm will be followed by a weaker system today.
“The storms will leave unstable conditions through Saturday,” Heffernan said. “There could be showers, but not many.”
It will be generally sunny through Wednesday. Daily highs will be in the low 40s and nighttime lows in the mid-teens.
Heffernan said she had reports of 1.5 inches of snow in Dove Creek, half an inch in Telluride and 0.9 inches in Silverton.
Weather watchers Briggen Wrinkle in Durango and Pam Snyder in Hesperus found no measurable snow Thursday morning.
Sandy Young recorded a trace five miles south of Farmington Hill.
Maureen Keilty in Rafter J measured one-fourth of an inch in the morning and an additional half-inch Thursday afternoon.
Leach said the snowpack picture was very different several years ago.
On the same date in 2008, the average in the four Southwestern Colorado basins was 167 percent of average. In the three following years, the average on the date was 116, 106 and 107 percent of average, Leach said.
Though winter isn’t over yet this year, “there’s not a lot of time to make up the difference,” Leach said.
