{"id":44262,"date":"2021-10-13T01:13:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T07:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/winter-weather-arrives-early-with-reports-of-a-foot-or-more-of-snow-in-the-high-country\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:18:08","slug":"winter-weather-arrives-early-with-reports-of-a-foot-or-more-of-snow-in-the-high-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/winter-weather-arrives-early-with-reports-of-a-foot-or-more-of-snow-in-the-high-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter weather arrives early, with reports of a foot or more of snow in the high country"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Clouds
Clouds lift from the West Needles on Tuesday morning to reveal the snow-covered San Juan Mountains north of Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Winter may be a couple of months away, but Southwest Colorado got its first taste of cold and snow Tuesday, with reports of over a foot of snow in the high country.<\/p>\n

Scott Stearns, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction, said an official inch count of how much snow fell in the mountains north of Durango will not be available until Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\"A
A snowstorm moves through the San Juan Mountains on Tuesday north of Durango, leaving several inches of snow. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe usually get a lot of reports the morning after the snow occurs,\u201d Stearns said.<\/p>\n

Snow reportedly started falling just after midnight Tuesday, with the Colorado Department of Transportation reporting 6 inches of snow on mountain passes as early as 5:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur plow drivers were out plowing the surface of the roadways, and they\u2019ve been after it throughout the day,\u201d said CDOT spokeswoman Lisa Schwantes.<\/p>\n

Schwantes said Red Mountain and Molas passes were the first to receive attention from plow drivers.<\/p>\n

Silverton Mountain Ski Area co-owner Jen Brill said the town of Silverton received about a foot.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got about a foot in town, and we usually get double up there,\u201d Brill said.<\/p>\n

Brill said Silverton Mountain\u2019s opening day is planned for Dec. 30, with heli-skiing starting around Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it keeps up like this we\u2019re always willing to open up early,\u201d Brill said. \u201cUsually for us opening is not about snow, it\u2019s about business. A lot of people don\u2019t want their first day of the season to be advanced and expert skiing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Purgatory
Purgatory Resort received several inches of snow Tuesday morning from an early-season snowstorm that moved through the area. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Purgatory Resort did not have an official snow report as of late Tuesday afternoon, but said about 6 inches had accumulated around picnic tables.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an absolutely gorgeous day,\u201d said Purgatory spokeswoman Amanda Anderson.<\/p>\n

Anderson said Purgatory had to set up in the snow for this weekend\u2019s USA Cycling Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fun to see the juxtaposition of the cycling event setup in the snow,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Anderson said with Wednesday\u2019s forecast reported to be warmer and sunny, the cycling event is still in the plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can only control what we can control, and we\u2019re going to do the best we can to pull it off,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n

Snow flurries were reported at Mancos and Ridgway state parks, but according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesman John Livingston, the snow was not sticking.<\/p>\n

\"A
A snowstorm, accompanied by high winds, may have knocked fall leaves to the ground sooner than expected in Southwest Colorado. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Alongside the snow were high winds, which took a toll on some of the colorful fall leaves. The time for optimal leaf peeping seems to be past.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cold weather will have a lot more leaves falling this week, and we are definitely past our peak in the high country,\u201d Livingston said.<\/p>\n

\"Horses
Horses graze in a snow-covered pasture Tuesday north of Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Wolf Creek Pass was closed for about five hours as a safety precaution on Tuesday, Schwantes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had several vehicles spinning out, in particular large commercial vehicles, as well as a jackknifed semitruck,\u201d Schwantes said. \u201cIt was considered a safety closure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schwantes said as winter weather approaches, drivers should \u201cknow before you go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want to remind everyone that they need to think about their journey before driving out of their driveway,\u201d Schwantes said. \u201cCheck the weather forecast, be sure to check on road conditions at cotrip.org<\/a>, take a look at our cameras and see if you\u2019re comfortable driving those conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

While things are supposed to warm up on Wednesday, there may be more weather coming through Thursday.<\/p>\n

njohnson@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mountain passes turn icy; Wolf Creek Pass closes for five hours<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[576,28,2590,29,87,327,414,373],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-department-of-transportation","tag-headlines","tag-molas-pass","tag-newsletter","tag-red-mountain-pass","tag-silverton","tag-weather","tag-wolf-creek-pass"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44262","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=44262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86024,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44262\/revisions\/86024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44262"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}