Large snow storms close schools, block area roads

A series of winter storms slammed San Juan County over the past week. The result is closed schools, treacherous driving conditions, overworked road and shoveling crews, and smiles for those concerned about a fifth consecutive dryer-than-normal winter.
Blanding had measurable precipitation for five consecutive days between January 4 and 9, totaling 1.70 inches of total precipitation and the accumulation of 19 inches of snow.
The storms resulted in the closure of schools in the San Juan School District on January 8. The snow day will be made up on April 18, according to district officials.
Roads were very dangerous as maintenance crews struggled to keep up with the snow throughout the county. There were dozens of minor accidents and slide-offs.
While summer rains have helped local residents avoid drought, the consecutive years of dry winter weather have resulted in severely depleted water levels in area reservoirs. With the storms, water managers expect a significant runoff in the spring.
A significant expansion to Dry Wash Reservoir was completed this summer. The heavy winter storms may help fill the expanded reservoir in its first year of completion.
As of January 11, the snow pack in the Abajo Mountains was greater than it had been in the past four years, and there are still two and one half months during which the snowpack could increase.
The current snow pack is more than 200 percent above normal totals for the date and is already 90 percent of the average total snowpack for an entire winter.
The January storms come on the heels of a wetter-than-normal December. The precipitation has hit the Blanding area in particular, with nearly four feet of total snow in Blanding so far for the winter.
Total precipitation for the water year, which begins in October, is 170 percent of normal in Blanding and 167 percent of normal in Monticello.