Wednesday, Aug 7, 2013 5:01 PMUpdated Thursday, Aug. 8, 2013 4:27 PM
But after chilly afternoon, no big storms in forecast
Flowers didn’t fare well in Thursday afternoon’s rain and hailstorm at Colorado National Bank at Main Avenue and Ninth Street.
SHAUN STANLEY/Durango Herald
Kenny Gallegos with the city of Durango works to clear a clogged storm drain at West Park Avenue and West Second Avenue on Thursday afternoon after hail blocked drainage.
SHAUN STANLEY/Durango Herald
Violet Bleger, 5, finds a bright moment of play on an otherwise gray day as she splashes through puddles from the day’s rain on the track at Escalante Middle School. Violet is the daughter of Jerome and Tiffany Bleger of Durango.
SHAUN STANLEY/Durango Herald
A pedestrian crosses Camino del Rio on Thursday afternoon as a hail storm complicates travel for walkers and motorists.
SHAUN STANLEY/Durango Herald
Caleb Rivenes, 9, son of Heather Knowlton of Ignacio, takes a walk down the midway on Thursday afternoon at the La Plata County Fair. Photo by Steve Lewis/Durango Herald
Finding sunshine on a rainy day. 5 year old Violet Bleger finds a bright moment of play on an otherwise grey day as she splashes through puddles from recent rain on the track at Escalante Middle School. Violet is the daughter of Jerome and Tiffany Bleger of Durango. Photo by Shaun Stanley/Durango Herald
Vendor Alan Strickland had to drain his roof periodically during a heavy storm on Thursday afternoon at the La Plata County Fair. Photo by Steve Lewis/Durango Herald
Kenny Gallegos with the City of Durango works to clear a clogged storm drain at the intersection of West Park Avenue and West Second Avenue Thursday afternoon after a hail storm moved through the area. Photo by Shaun Stanley/Durango Herald
Jessica Johnson from Pinetop, Ariz., passes the time at her booth as a storm bringing hail and heavy rain washes over the La Plata County Fair on Thursday afternoon. Photo by Steve Lewis/Durango Herald
A pedestrian cross Camino del Rio Thursday afternoon as a hail and rain storm moved through the area. Photo by Shaun Stanley/Durango Herald
A storm that brought heavy rain and hail to Durango left vestiges of its presence all over town on Thursday afternoon. Photo by Steve Lewis/Durango Herald
T.C. Rockwell, 10, didn't wait for the rain to stop falling to get out on his scooter and find something to jump on Thursday afternoon at the La Plata County Fair. T.C. is the son of Kylie Caraher and Miles Rockwell. Photo by Steve Lewis/Durango Herald
Flowers destroyed by Thursday afternoons rain storm in a planter at Colorado National Bank along 9 th Street with accumulated hail in the foreground. Photo by Shaun Stanley/Durango Herald
La Plata County had its hazardous weather Thursday, which included gusty winds, locally heavy rain and, in Durango at least, hail.
“What happened was classic,” said Chris Cuoco, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Grand Junction. “The storm will hug the mountains, then roll down to lower elevations.”
The storm that dropped hail in Durango and made it unseasonably chilly continued south to New Mexico, Cuoco said. It was all over about 3 p.m., he said.
The Weather Service said high temperatures through Monday will continue to be in the high 70s and the lows in the mid-50s. Daily thunderstorms are forecast.
Anecdotally, at least one bank thermometer in Durango showed a reading in the high 40s in the early afternoon Thursday. In any case, temperatures were abnormally low on a day when the normal high is in the 80s.
Rain and hail fell fast enough that a drain clogged at West Park Avenue and West Second Avenue, filling the street with water and causing traffic to be diverted for at least half an hour as city of Durango street crews cleared the drain.
Rainfall was not evenly distributed, Cuoco said. The Durango-La Plata County Airport saw one-hundredth of an inch, Durango received a few hundredths to one-tenth of an inch, while the area around Redmesa was the big winner – 0.42 inches.
Contrary to reports elsewhere, there was no snow in the San Juan Mountains, Cuoco said. Hail could have been mistaken for snow, he said.
“We didn’t see any snow,” Cuoco said. “It was too warm to snow.”
The weather for La Plata County will continue much the same, with some afternoon monsoonal rains, Cuoco said.
“No new storm systems are coming at us,” he said. “There won’t be a lot of change.”
Nancy Shanks, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation, said crews continue to clear a 2½-mile stretch of Colorado Highway 145 between Telluride and Placerville of mud slides.
“It’s an area that slides often,” Shanks said. “Crews were cleaning 29 culverts today.”
