Noah Hotchkiss, 17, asks for the ball from his sister Amada Hotchkiss, 14, as they and friend Janiah Wilks, 14, walk to the Durango Community Recreation Center as snow falls Monday. The day’s powder should be all the city sees through Snowdown, according to the National Weather Service.

Jerry McBride/Durango Herald

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Noah Hotchkiss, 17, asks for the ball from his sister Amada Hotchkiss, 14, as they and friend Janiah Wilks, 14, walk to the Durango Community Recreation Center as snow falls Monday. The day’s powder should be all the city sees through Snowdown, according to the National Weather Service.

Jerry McBride/Durango Herald

A snowplow driver clears an avalanche slide that crews triggered Monday at the Mother Cline slide path just a few miles south of Ouray. Control work brought down about 5 feet of snow on the highway, measuring about 300 feet long. Similar results were seen at a slide path further south called East Riverside. More than 18 inches of snow has fallen in “the gorge,” over the last 24 hours, and it was still falling Monday.

Courtesy of Colorado Department of Transportation

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A snowplow driver clears an avalanche slide that crews triggered Monday at the Mother Cline slide path just a few miles south of Ouray. Control work brought down about 5 feet of snow on the highway, measuring about 300 feet long. Similar results were seen at a slide path further south called East Riverside. More than 18 inches of snow has fallen in “the gorge,” over the last 24 hours, and it was still falling Monday.

Courtesy of Colorado Department of Transportation

Red Mountain Pass is snowy and the roads are snowpacked as seen from this webcam photo on Monday morning.

thecloudscout.com

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Red Mountain Pass is snowy and the roads are snowpacked as seen from this webcam photo on Monday morning.

thecloudscout.com

Heavy snowfall that closed Red Mountain Pass for most of the day Monday stayed too far north to benefit lower elevations of Southwest Colorado, including Cortez, Durango and Pagosa Springs.

The trend is expected to continue through the week, making Snowdown in Durango a dry one, said Dennis Phillips, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.

“It does look like a quiet period through at least next week,” Phillips said.

The next best chance for snow comes Sunday night and Monday, he said.

Red Mountain Pass, between Silverton and Ouray, was closed from about 6 a.m. until 3 p.m. Monday while Colorado Department of Transportation did avalanche-control work.

The pass received more than 18 inches of snow last weekend and on Monday.

The new snow fell on top of old snowpack that had solidified, creating a weak layer on top, said CDOT spokeswoman Nancy Shanks. The avalanche danger went from low to moderate.

“If you look at the cameras right now, it looks pretty wintry up there,” Shanks said Monday morning. “The roads are snowpacked; the skies are gray. It’s a different picture up there.”

A chain law remained in effect for commercial vehicles.

Temperatures are expected to warm as the week progresses. Lows were expected to be near zero degrees Monday night, with a high of 30 Tuesday. By Saturday, temperatures will reach almost 40 degrees, Phillips said.

For more information about traveling and road conditions, visit www.cotrip.org. For information about weather and to see webcams from the area, visit http://thecloudscout.com.

shane@durangoherald.com