If there are bright sides to an extreme lack of snowfall this winter and spring, this is one of them: San Juan County road crews already have Cinnamon Pass and Ophir Pass roads open to the top from the Silverton side. This is as of Thursday; that’s April 9 on the calendar. Often, these roads still are being plowed on Memorial Day or later.

In town, Silverton received 114 inches of snow, compared with the normal 200 inches, said Pam Welty of the Silverton Visitors Center.

“We just had a very low snowfall this year,” Welty said.

As of Thursday, the snowpack for the combined San Miguel, Dolores, Animas and San Juan river basins was at 49 percent of average, as reported by the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, which has measuring sites in various places around the basins. The snowpack for the Upper Rio Grande – the other side of the Continental Divide from Wolf Creek Pass, or Cinnamon Pass, for instance – also is at 49 percent.

This is not good news for farmers or certain recreationists, but those who want to four-wheel-drive to 12,600 feet atop Cinnamon Pass can do so.

Red Mountain Pass has a little healthier snowpack, at 70 percent, while Columbus Basin in the La Plata Mountains isn’t so bad at 62 percent. But El Diente Peak is at 39 percent, and Lone Cone registers at 16 percent.

These roads already are open, Welty said, which gets reports from the San Juan County road crews:

South Mineral Road as far as the campground.

Eureka to Animas Forks.

Animas Forks to the top of Cinnamon.

The Cunningham Gulch road.

Ophir Pass to the top.

As of Thursday, crews were working on Engineer Pass, Welty said.

johnp@ durangoherald.com