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Record lows freeze city
Avalanche danger in San Juans 'considerable'
Herald Staff Writer
Photo by Courtesy of Jerry Roberts/Colorado Avalanche Information Center
Click image to enlarge
JACK PINCUS/Herald
James McPeake helps assemble snow shovels from a new shipment that arrived at Kroegers Ace Hardware on Monday. The shipment of shovels is expected to be sold out by the end of the week. Store manager Bob Thom said the store had been receiving about 10 calls per hour from customers looking for shovels.
Cold air from the Pacific northwest brought snow, wind and record-low temperatures last week to La Plata County.
At 4:53 a.m. Sunday, a record-low of minus 13 degrees was set at the Durango-La Plata County Airport, according to the National Weather Service in Grand Junction. It broke the previous record low of minus 12 degrees set the same day in 1966 and 1988.
And Saturday, the airport recorded a low of minus 18 degrees, which matched the previous record low for that day set in 1924.
"It made everybody miserable," said Ron Dent, director of the airport. "It was brutally cold. I felt sorry for those folks who work for the airlines who have to do the deicing."
No problems were reported as a result of the cold weather at the airport, he said.
But at Mercy Regional Medical Center, an indoor sprinkler broke about 2:15 p.m. Monday in the chapel because of cold weather, said David Bruzzese, spokesman for the hospital. No significant damage resulted, he said, but hospital officials had to move furniture out of the chapel.
In Durango city limits, the low dipped to minus 6 degrees Friday, minus 5 degrees Saturday and zero degrees Sunday, said Briggen Wrinkle, a volunteer weather observer for the National Weather Service.
In addition to enduring cold temperatures, Durango residents had to dig out from about 25 inches of new snow since Christmas Day, Wrinkle said.
But for residents without a snow shovel, digging out has been difficult, because local stores like Kroegers Ace Hardware have been sold out of
the winter scoops. The store, which received more shovels Monday, was receiving about 10 calls per hour from customers in search of a shovel or snow rake, said Bob Thom, store manager.
"We try to anticipate it as much as we can," he said. "But the National Weather Service says one thing, and the weather does another."
Butch Knowlton, director of La Plata County's Office of Emergency Preparedness, reminded residents to keep gas lines clear of snow and ice where they enter the home or business. Last year, several homes burned after ice severed the lines, filling the homes with fuel.
County Road and Bridge crews were working all day to keep roads clear, said Doyle Villers, superintendent of road maintenance for La Plata County.
"We're relying on Mother Nature and warm temperatures for the next couple of days to help us do some of the work and get us down to bare pavement," he said.
Blizzard-like conditions Thursday evening closed Red Mountain, Molas, Coal Bank and Wolf Creek passes. Coal Bank and Molas passes reopened the next day, and Red Mountain and Wolf Creek passes reopened Sunday morning.
"That's the one disadvantage of living in Durango, right? You get a little socked-in once in a while," said Nancy Shanks, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation.
Eleven natural avalanches covered sections of U.S. Highway 550 between Coal Bank and Red Mountain passes, Shanks said. The slides were an average of 10 feet deep and covered 2,260 feet of roadway, she said.
CDOT triggered another nine avalanches that covered Highway 550 with an average snow depth of 10 feet and a total distance of 580 feet, Shanks said.
"So we've got some incredible walls up there now," she said.
It snowed 1 inch per hour for 36 hours in the northern San Juan Mountains, Shanks said. Typical wind gusts were 80 to 90 mph, she said, with the highest gust being 122 mph.
The Colorado Avalanche Information Center in Boulder said weather observers, ski areas and CDOT have reported a total of 130 avalanches since Christmas Day in the northern San Juan Mountains. And observations represent only about 10 percent of the total number of avalanches believed to be occurring in an area, said Scott Toepfer, an avalanche forecaster.
The avalanche danger was listed as "considerable" for the northern and southern San Juan Mountains.
The next storm is expected to arrive about Saturday, said Mike Chamberland, forecaster with the National Weather
Service.
"I think we'll be seeing accumulation, especially in the mountains," he said.
shane@durangoherald.com'>shane@durangoherald.com
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