Snowfall Amounts North of Durango - Glacier Club (Center: ski resort, area)

[MtnFlyer]

Durango Mountain Ski Resort/Purgatory boasts an impressive 260 inches of snow per year, yet I understand from form posts I've read here that Durango itself receives a minimal amount. In fact I've been told that a white Christmas in Durango is very unusual.

With the ski resort being less than 20 miles from the edge of town, I was wondering just how far north of town the snow area for lack of a better term starts? I've heard Trimble, but that seems odd as it's at about the same elevation and only 5 miles from the edge of town, and I've also heard Glacier Club gets a huge amout of snow. Is any of this correct?

Thanks in advance.

[jazzlover]

If you had read my post in the thread here https://www.city-data.com/forum/color...efore-you.html , you would have found the Western Regional Climate Center site, where you could look at climatic information for umpteen Colorado sites. From that, Durango is listed as getting an average of approximately 69" of snow annually, not a "minimal" amount in my book. The Electra Lake site, not far from Durango Mountain (Purgatory to anybody that's been in Colorado for awhile) gets about 158" on average, while the Tacoma site (down in the Animas Canyon at the Tacoma Power Plant) gets around 115" on average.

My personal experience (40 years worth) indicates that snow amounts start increasing steadily as one gains altitude north Hermosa--which the weather sites (and common sense) bear out.

[MtnFlyer]

Thanks for the wonderful links. Yes I actually did check the weather as well as search the board. Since there is a big difference in snowfall and actually retaining any of it I went on to read about actual experiences where I came across a few threads like this one:

https://www.city-data.com/forum/color...queries-2.html

There were two others as well. Thats what led me to post for more clarification.

Thanks again.