Long cold stretch testing valley but no major issues

We’re sort of used to it…

By Katherine Nettles, Kendra Walker and Mark Reaman 

It’s been cold in the valley for the last couple weeks. Like, really cold with regular overnight low temperatures in both Crested Butte and Gunnison well below zero and the highs struggling to get out of the teens, or even the single digits. Some of the low temperatures have been extreme, but we do live high up in the mountains where winter can be harsh so while there have been a few inconveniences, no major issues have resulted as a result of the cold. That could of course change as things begin to warm up and pipes fracture.

RTA executive director Scott Truex reported that bus ridership has been slightly down, which is probably related to the cold temperatures discouraging people from traveling around the valley. 

“Our ridership is down about 7% for the first half of January and I would think that it had to do with the weather,” he said.

Truex said there were some difficulties with RTA vehicles over the past several days, though it isn’t clear whether that was related to the temps. 

The compressed natural gas (CNG) systems on which RTA buses and many of the county fleet vehicles run can be sensitive to extreme cold.

“We did have an issue last week with the fueling, but we aren’t 100% sure if it was related to the cold.  

The cold weather is hard on the vehicles, and we did miss about 3% of our trips last week,” he said.

Assistant county manager for public works Martin Schmidt said, “We are aware of some people who have had frozen water lines but not in the public lines, and same with sewer lines. We’ve also had trouble with some of our diesel engines gelling up and just stop working, but that hasn’t affected our ability to plow or anything. We are doing our best to keep some of our plow equipment inside. We’re excited to see the temperatures start to come back up to ‘normal winter,’” he said. He added that they haven’t been able to patch potholes but that consistent freezing is better on the roads than the melt/freeze cycle. “You’ll be seeing more work done as the temps start to come back up,” he said. “But big variables in general are bad for roads, so the cold hasn’t been a problem there at all.” 

Gunnison County Electric Association member relations supervisor Alliy Sahagun said the electric co-op is going through a lot of energy during the cold spell, but hasn’t experienced equipment failures. She said the cause of last week’s Mt. Crested Butte power outage is being investigated to see if it was weather related.

Crested Butte Public Works director Shea Earley said town has been dealing with various HVAC (Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) issues from the cold given its variety of facilities. He said he is also hearing there have been issues with some EV charging inefficiency which is probably not unexpected when -35 degrees was reported at the wastewater plant Tuesday morning. Staff is in the process of analyzing the data. 

The town of Mt. Crested Butte said the cold temperatures haven’t affected town operations and town staff has not heard any reports of freezing pipe issues. 

The Crested Butte Fire Protection District hasn’t seen much action as a result of the cold. “We have not had any incidents directly related to this arctic blast that we have experienced,” said CBFPD EMS and fire chief Rob Weisbaum. “Luckily no burst pipes, gas leaks from broken meters or medical related emergencies have occurred. Which, in this case, no news is good news.” 

But Weisbaum emphasized that as this arctic cold weather passes and begins to warm up, this is when the department typically see pipes fracture causing leaks. For commercial properties, the fire station gets notified via 911 however on residential properties, Weisbaum said they don’t know unless it’s on an alarm system with a sprinkler system. “In the event there is a broken pipe causing a leak in a residence, we encourage that people shut off their main water supply as soon as possible to minimize damage,” he said. ”Never hesitate to call 911 if additional help is needed.”

Crested Butte Mountain Resort communications manager Katie Lyons said this cold snap hasn’t impacted the mountain or lift operations. “Though it’s been a chilly few days in the valley, we’re used to operating in winter conditions and cold weather and the low temps did not impact operations at CBMR,” she said, noting that both Spellbound and Phoenix Bowls opened over the weekend. “Guest and employee safety is always our top priority, and uniquely cold temps like these merit some additional messaging and precaution. We’ve taken measures during this cold spell to share information about how to stay warm on the slopes, and encouraged wearing extra layers, taking frequent breaks and staying hydrated. We also handed out handwarmers and over 900 buffs to guests and employees over the weekend to help them stay warm!” 

But it sure is cold!

Gunnison Valley Health marketing and communications director Joelle Ashley credited the hospital and EMS system’s lack of cold related injury patients to “the exceptional situational awareness of our community members, who are well-versed in the realities of our region’s harsh winters.”

We asked longtime weather watcher Bruce Bartleson, a retired geology professor from Western Colorado University, for his perspective on this cold spell. We assume that most people who have been here more than a few decades think this is a normal January stretch from before the 1990s.

In the short-term, Bartleson agreed but in the big picture, he said things are definitely getting warmer. “Yes, this is “normal” Gunnison weather, although this icy polar vortex coming in is a bit of a freak,” he wrote in an email. “However, overall, we are warming as shown by various parameters — especially the marked increase in the growing season based upon the number of frost-free days.” 

According to Bartleson, until the 1970s, Gunnison consistently averaged a little over 50 frost-free days every year. It has rapidly changed and is now averaging about 75 frost-free days. He said Crested Butte has been much more inconsistent with frost-free days averaging in the 20s until the 1930s, but then CB roughly averaged about 40 frost-free days until the 1970s and it is now at about 60 days every year.

The arctic blast forecast predicted Gunnison and Crested Butte would hit 40 below on Tuesday morning. It didn’t at the official weather stations but came close in various pockets around the valley. The official GCEA weather station recorded negative 31 degrees Tuesday morning. No matter, Bartleson made clear that it is realllly cold — and unusual even for here. 

“Despite popular folklore, 40 below is rather rare in Gunnison having been recorded 16 or 17 times in about 130 years,” Bartleson continued, explaining a shift in the place for the official temperature recordings ended up resulting a few gap years.”

He said the average maximum temps in Gunnison this month are running 10 degrees colder than average, and the temperature minimum is running eight degrees below normal for January. “We just can’t seem to warm the place up with all the snow covering up the ground – as I discussed in the paper last week,” he said.

Brrr.