Montrose - Daily Press

MONTROSE - The first snow of the season is packing a bit of a wallop, with between 6 and 10 inches expected in the Montrose area by midnight.

"This is our first major winter storm of the area, affecting much of Western Colorado," said John Kyle, data acquisition program manager for NWS in Grand Junction.

Montrose is under a winter weather warning until midnight, although the storm is expected to clear the area by the weekend.

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"Friday's going to be much improved, relative to what we will expect tonight and tomorrow," Kyle said.

A large area of low pressure from the Great Basin carried Old Man Winter into Montrose for his first visit. That low is currently centered over the Four Corners region, and is expected to track out over the Front Range and on, to the northeast in the next few days.

The storm triggered several power outages, including one at Montrose High this morning.

A transformer blew, cutting power to MHS's main wing, the school district reported. Power went off at around 8 a.m. and was restored by 9:45 a.m.

Delta-Montrose Electric Association continues to send reports of power outages. So far, it has reported outages on South Second, South Third and East Main, affecting 189 consumers. Power was out from about 1 a.m. to 2:15 a.m. before the power pole was re-fused.

Another outage, caused by a tree arcing in the line, affected North Seventh, Eighth and Ninth streets east of the tap fuses on Nevada to the San Juan Bypass. Two fuses had to be opened to remove the tree limb. The area was darkened from 8:30 a.m. to shortly after 10 a.m., for 123 customers.

Heavy snow was a factor in most of the outages, DEMA said. That was certainly the case in Paonia, where tavern customers early this morning heard a loud bang before the lights went out. Heavy snow loading on the trees caused the outage, which lasted fore more than four hours.

In Grand Junction, a traffic accident took out a power pole, causing North Avenue from 29 1/2 Road to I-70B and North Avenue to be closed while the transformer pole was changed out.

It was not immediately clear whether the accident had been due to weather.

As of 10:45 this morning, the Colorado State Patrol Montrose office had not reported any accidents it might have covered. Troopers were busy working the roads and could not be reached to provide that information.

Soccer fans will have to put their plans on hold due to the weather, the Colorado High School Activities Association announced. All CHSAA boys' soccer playoffs scheduled for Thursday and Saturday have been rescheduled for next week.

The storm also brought extreme wind conditions to the Steamboat Ski Area last night, the National Weather Service reported. Gusts were clocked at up to 100 mph.

Comments

I dont think so wrote on Nov 3, 2009 9:23 AM:

" Well Tom you arent suppose to cut limbs that are in the lines, DMEA is suppose to have people do it so dont preach to citizen about it. It also isnt his job to trim other peoples limbs in his neighborhood. "




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Tom wrote on Oct 29, 2009 11:18 PM:

" Well if you see to be a concern, do something instead of complaining. Be a citizen and help out instead of looking at the problem and complaining, expecting the city/utill to do all the work. If the people of this city were to maintain their own property and their overgrowth of vegetation the utility companies would not have to deal with this problem and in hence would save everyone in the Valley money "




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Jack wrote on Oct 29, 2009 10:37 AM:

" Citizen
It is not a city problem anyhow, it is a DMEA problem. Call them and you might actually see some results. "




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citizen wrote on Oct 28, 2009 4:48 PM:

" You know, I have called the city a couple of time to report trees growing into power lines. This after casual observation while walking around my neighborhood. They called back and told me they didn't see any real problems...might be because their lights were out! "




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