The last throes of a winter storm that dumped more than a foot of snow during the past three days in Durango was expected to peter out Tuesday morning, making way for cooler temperatures and clearer skies as the week wears on.
Forecasters were calling for another 2-4 inches of accumulation from 5 p.m. Monday until 9 a.m. Tuesday in Durango. A winter storm warning is set to expire at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
Monday’s frosty winter weather made for icy and snowpacked road conditions across much of Southwest Colorado, including all three mountain passes north of Durango, which closed for adverse weather conditions.
The runway closed early Monday at Durango-La Plata County Airport as a result of icy conditions, but it reopened about 8:15 a.m. after crews plowed and deiced it. The first few flights of the day didn’t takeoff until about 9:30 a.m., and that created a backlog of in-coming and outgoing flights, said Tony Vicari, interim airport director.
The city of Durango had snowplows working around the clock for the duration of the storm, said Levi Lloyd, director of city operations.
“We’re still working on getting things cleaned up,” he said at 4:30 p.m. Monday. “We had town in fairly good shape, and now we’ve got more snow coming in.”
The city planned to begin removing snow from the downtown area Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and, therefore, asked residents to use the Durango Transit Center for overnight parking.
“If they leave it on Main (Avenue) or Second Avenue or any of the side streets, their cars will be towed, and then they will be responsible for the cost of the tow and the ticket,” Lloyd said.
Some residents complained about snowplows pushing snow into driveway entrances, he said, but for the most part, the complaints have been minimal.
“We apologize for doing that,” he said. “It’s just because of the way we have to plow snow – we have to take the snow from the center of the road to the side of the road; that creates conflicts, we understand it creates conflicts with the cars parked on the road and driveways and things like that, but we do have to keep the streets clear so people can get around.”
With people back to work Monday, city plows had a chance to push snow further to the sides of streets without cars in the way, he said.
“I know it’s not always feasible, but if people can move their cars off the streets it does make it a lot easier for us to get in ... and clean up their neighborhoods,” he said.
Red Mountain Pass, between Silverton and Ouray, closed about 11 a.m. Monday with no estimated time for reopening. Coal Bank and Molas passes closed about 3 p.m. and were to remain closed overnight.
“This is a safety issue for the traveling public and our CDOT (Colorado Department of Transportation) equipment operators,” said Vance Kelso, maintenance supervisor for the U.S. Highway 550 corridor, in a news release. “A snowslide came down this morning and covered a section of the road (Red Mountain Pass) with 2 feet of snow. We are concerned that additional slides may occur.”
Natural slides also hit the road on Coal Bank and Molas passes, he said. “We have equipment moving snow and clearing the roadway. It’s our hope we will have the highway south of Silverton open by this (Monday) evening.”
Wolf Creek Pass was closed Monday night for avalanche-mitigation work.
The Colorado Avalanche Information Center issued an avalanche warning for the entire San Juan Mountain Range, where the avalanche danger was listed as “high” Monday night.
With the storm clearing out, temperatures were expected to be in the mid-20s through the week with a low in the single digits. Forecasters were calling for a dry weekend with a high in the low 30s.
shane@durangoherald.com A photograph with this story has been corrected to properly note that Mason Brown, 6, was shoveling snow in front of Fired Up Pizza on Friday. An early version gave an incorrect date.
