The smattering of snow that fell Thursday afternoon around Durango is about what can be expected from the next storm due in the area Sunday, a National Weather Service spokesman said Friday from Grand Junction.
It was necessary to look above 9,000 feet elevation to see much accumulated snow from the Thursday storm, John Kyle said, the data acquisition program manager at the National Weather Service.
From 3 to 8 inches fell at the higher elevations, he said.
The weather show Sunday should produce about the same results, he said.
Looking farther out, dry conditions should prevail through next week, he said.
Only the Steamboat Springs area received a winter storm warning.
Winter weather advisories, a less serious alert, were issued for areas north of Montrose and Gunnison.
The chance of snow Sunday in Durango is 30 percent.
The weather service forecast for Saturday through Thursday in Durango is for high temperatures around 40 and lows around 10.
No precipitation is foreseen except for Sunday.
Colorado Department of Transportation spokeswoman Nancy Shanks said Friday the bit of weather returning could make for slick highways.
Shanks urged motorists to learn about highway conditions at www.cotrip.org or by dialing 511.
Otherwise, CDOT highway maintenance crews are ready for adverse weather, she said.
The Durango maintenance area has six patrols in the following areas: Durango, Hesperus, Rockwood, Ignacio, Bayfield and Pagosa Springs.
The six areas have 21 snowplows available, she said.
In Hesperus, weather observer Pam Snyder recorded one-half inch of snow by Thursday evening.
“But the wind has been blowing hard, so there’s little trace of it now,” she said Friday. “It was very dry snow.”
Sandy Young on Florida Mesa south of Farmington Hill received no snow.
“We didn’t see a bit,” Young said. “But we sure need it.”
Bill Butler in the Rafter J subdivision found four-tenths of an inch of snow in his gauge Thursday.
The water content, he said, was 2/100th of an inch.
daler@durangoherald.com
