From The Pueblo Chieftain (Matt Hildner):
Both U.S. 160 on the west side of Wolf Creek Pass and Colorado 17 over Cumbres and La Manga were closed all day. U.S. 285 south of Antonito at the New Mexico state line was also closed at the start of the day, although it would later reopen…
By Friday morning, 31 inches of snow had fallen at Creede. “Mama said there’d be days like this,” Town Manager Clyde Dooley said. Work crews were plowing there by 3:30 a.m., attacking drifts that had piled as high as 39 inches in spots. By 2 p.m. the town of South Fork had roughly 20 inches of snow on the ground…
While tough on drivers, the snowfall boosted the mountains’ snowpack. The Natural Resource Conservation Service’s gauges in the upper Rio Grande basin reported snow-water equivalent at 103 percent of average, up by 20 points from just a week ago. Gauges in the Sangre de Cristos reported the snow-water equivalent at 92 percent of average, up from 78 percent last week.
More coverage from the Cortez Journal (Kimberly Benedict). From the article:
“We’ve received 11.2 inches (of snow) for all the storms that have happened in the whole week,” said local weather observer Jim Andrus. “It has been pretty impressive.” The winter weather has given the area a head start on moisture for the year, providing 1.31 inches of liquid precipitation, 130 percent of normal for the month, according to Andrus.
I can’t help posting this line from the Cortez Journal: “If you have deer near your home, chances are you also have mountain lions.” You see, it’s winter down there and the deer have been in the old orchards lazing around eating well and now the lions are eating well.
More coverage from The Durango Herald (Shane Benjamin):
The snow began flying Monday evening and continued for four consecutive days with periodic interruptions. A total of three storms passed through the region with 12- to 18-hour breaks between each one. As of Friday morning, Durango had received 35 inches over the preceding four days. As of Friday afternoon, Pagosa Springs reported 31.3 inches, Durango West II subdivision 39.7 inches, and Wolf Creek Pass 48 inches. The 35 inches is also Durango’s total for January, which is more than twice the average January snowfall of 16.9 inches…
Four of the five major mountain passes in Southwest Colorado – Coal Bank, Molas, Red Mountain and Wolf Creek – closed Thursday night and remained closed Friday evening. Lizard Head pass closed Thursday night and reopened Friday night. Cumbres and La Manga passes also were closed, preventing drivers from taking an alternate route through New Mexico.