{"id":36910,"date":"2022-12-06T19:54:33","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T02:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/snowstorm-hits-san-juan-mountains\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:34:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:34:32","slug":"snowstorm-hits-san-juan-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/snowstorm-hits-san-juan-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"Snowstorm hits San Juan Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Heavy
Heavy snow is expected today and Wednesday in the San Juan Mountains. Colorado Highway 145 has snowpacked conditions at Rico and Lizard Head Pass. (Courtesy CDOT)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Snowfall arrived this week in the San Juan Mountains and has elevated the avalanche risk.<\/p>\n

A low-pressure Pacific storm heavy in moisture is moving over Southwest Colorado and is expected to drop 6 to 14 inches in the higher elevations, said Ben Moyer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is going to wring out mostly in the mountains with continuous snowfall today and Wednesday,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Heavier mountain snowfall is forecast for late Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon and evening.<\/p>\n

By the end of the storm Thursday, Rico could get up to 14 inches; Telluride, 8 inches; Silverton, 10 inches; Purgatory, 4 inches; and Dolores, 2 to 3 inches. Cortez and Durango are expected to get 1 to 2 inches.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Colorado Highway 145 around Lizard Head Pass was slushy and icy in spots.<\/p>\n

On U.S. 550 there is a passenger vehicle traction and commercial chain law in effect between Electra Lake Road and First Street (21 miles south of Silverton) from, or mile marker 49 to mile marker 70.<\/p>\n

Avalanche danger increases<\/div>\n

An avalanche watch for Southwest Colorado mountains is in effect through 7 a.m. Thursday, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the western San Juans were rated at \u201cmoderate\u201d avalanche risk, Level 2 out of five categories.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the risk for that area jumps to \u201chigh,\u201d or Level 4, for below tree line and near tree line, and at \u201cconsiderable,\u201d Level 3, above tree line.<\/p>\n

\"Avalanche
Avalanche season has begun, evidenced by this slab release on Coal Bank Pass on Sunday. (Colorado Avalanche Information Center)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"An
An injured ice climber near Ouray is transported to safety by the Ouray Mountain Rescue team on Nov. 21. (Courtesy Ouray Mountain Rescue Team.)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
The Ouray Mountain Rescue team responded to an injured ice climber on the Ribbon route outside of Ouray on Nov. 21. (Courtesy Sam Rushing)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The avalanche watch is in effect for areas surrounding Ouray, Silverton, Telluride, Lizard Head Pass, Rico, Vallecito and the La Plata Mountains, according to the CAIC report.<\/p>\n

Beginning Tuesday night, the storm is expected to bring heavy snowfall and strong wind.<\/p>\n

The avalanche danger will rise rapidly by Wednesday morning. Elevated avalanche danger will continue through Wednesday as the storm progresses. By Wednesday, avoid travel in avalanche terrain.<\/p>\n

Backcountry travelers \u201ccould trigger an avalanche on slopes where weak early season snow is preserved under a slab of recent storm snow,\u201d the CAIC report states. \u201cNortherly slopes at all elevations and high-elevation slopes facing east are where you are most likely to find this strong over weak combination and trigger an avalanche.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cracking and collapsing are warning signs that a slope could slide and people should retreat to slopes less than 35 degrees in steepness.<\/p>\n

Cortez precipitation below normal<\/div>\n

Early winter snowfall is helping to reduce drought conditions, but Cortez is still below average for precipitation at 63% for the year, said Jim Andrus, Cortez weather observer for the National Weather Service.<\/p>\n

As of November, Cortez had 6.92 inches of precipitation for the year, well below the yearly average of 11.79 inches.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a long way to go. So far, these storms have just been teasing us with drizzle,\u201d Andrus said.<\/p>\n

Snotels scattered throughout the Dolores and Animas river basin measure snow-accumulation and snow-water equivalent.<\/p>\n

Snowfall for the San Miguel, Dolores, and San Juan River Basins is at 78% of normal as of Dec. 6, according to the Natural Resource Conservation Service Snotel report.<\/p>\n

The Dolores and San Miguel Basins are at 83% of normal, and the Animas Basin is at 76% of normal.<\/p>\n

The long-term drought in Southwest Colorado has eased somewhat, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor<\/a>. As of Nov. 29, western Montezuma County was in \u201cmoderate\u201d drought, Level 2 on a scale rising from zero to five. Eastern Montezuma County and all of La Plata County are rated \u201cabnormally dry,\u201d or Level 0 out of five on the drought severity scale.<\/p>\n

Ice climbing rescue<\/div>\n

As winter recreation ramps, so do accidents.<\/p>\n

On Nov. 21, the Ouray Mountain Rescue Team responded to an injured climber on the Ribbon ice climb just outside Ouray, according to the team\u2019s Facebook page.<\/p>\n

A rescue team was able to reach the patient, stabilize the injury, and package the climber for transport out of the area in chilly, backcountry conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cLots of human power and hours go into executing a plan, accessing and assessing the patient, and coordinating an exit strategy safely,\u201d stated the Facebook post.<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Avalanche risk increases; but little snow sticks in lower valleys<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-36910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83495,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36910\/revisions\/83495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36910"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=36910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}