Snow comes to Montrose

MONTROSE — It was only a little, but post-Thanksgiving Day snowfall initially left Montrose with more of the white stuff than was received in other areas.

The storm, which had dropped 3.5 inches at the Daily Press building by 4 p.m. Friday, was the result of favorable conditions, the National Weather Service said.

“You just had that combination of unstable air and happened to be in that favored snowband,” Jim Daniels of the National Weather Service’s Grand Junction office said.

Grand Junction hadn’t received snow, he said, while Telluride and Silverton reported 2 inches as of Friday morning. More snow was expected in those areas.

Telluride Ski Resort CEO Dave Riley rejoiced in nature’s bounty.

“The storm came in quickly after midnight and it has been snowing up to an inch an hour,” he said in a press release. “This natural snow will enable us to open (on Nov. 30) with great skiing.”

The ski resort was expecting an additional 4 to 8 inches.

Colona had 2.5 inches as of 8 a.m. Friday, while the Crawford area was reporting 1 inch. Daniels said 4 inches were reported 15 miles west of Montrose, where the elevation is slightly higher, while Red Mountain and Molas passes were reporting 2 to 3 inches.

Pagosa Springs had heavier snowfall than Montrose; there, the Wolf Creek ski area reported 6 inches.

A winter storm warning was in effect for the eastern San Juan mountains above 10,000 feet, including Wolf Creek Pass. The NWS predicted accumulations of 8 to 14 inches there, along with the possibility of drifting snow, due to winds and wind gusts. It advised against travel in that area.

The NWS Web site showed a snow advisory in effect for much of the southwest corner of the state and listed Montrose and Grand Junction under its hazardous weather outlook. A snow advisory was in effect until Friday evening.

The NWS predicted the storm system would bring accumulations of 6 to 11 inches in the northwest San Juan mountains, encompassing the towns of Ouray, Telluride, Lake City, Silverton, Rico and Hesperus. “Significant” snowfall was expected on Coal Bank, Molas, Red Mountain and Lizard Head passes.

Daniels said Friday morning’s storm was concentrated on the San Juans and some of the valley areas, including Montrose.

The snow is the result of an upper low level pressure system that swung across south-central Utah Thursday night and began moving across the Four Corners region Friday.

“Oftentimes, you’ll get an area that’s favorable for rising motion. As it came across southern Utah, it put a favored snowband across Delta and Montrose counties, over to Moab (Utah) and down into the San Juans,” Daniels said.

He said both the low and the band were on the move and he expected the storm system would leave the Montrose area by Friday night.

As of Friday morning, Montrose’s first significant brush with winter weather had a negligible effect on the state’s snowpack, which Daniels said remained below normal for the year.