Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Snowstorm hits states hard
A winter storm closes airports and roads and knocks out power in Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska.
A powerful late winter snowstorm intensified over the central Rocky Mountains on Sunday with heavy snow and wind leading to airport and road closures, power outages and avalanche warnings in parts of Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska.
The National Weather Service in Wyoming called it a “historic and crippling” winter storm that would cause extremely dangerous to impossible travel conditions through at least early Monday.
Major roads southeast of a line that crosses diagonally from the southwest corner of Wyoming to its northeast corner were closed Sunday, including roads in and out of Cheyenne and Casper.
The Wyoming Department of Transportation suspended plowing operations in the Casper area Sunday due to heavy snow and a lack of visibility, the agency said.
“We had several plows drive off the roadway due to limited to zero visibility,” the agency said on its Facebook page.
Interstate 80 was closed across southern Wyoming and into the Nebraska panhandle, where 19 inches of snow were reported south of Gering, Nebraska. Interstate 25 was closed north from Fort Collins, Colorado, to its end at Buffalo, Wyoming.
Denver Public Schools are taking a snow day Monday, as will schools in Cheyenne and Casper in Wyoming. Some government offices in those areas also will be closed Monday.
At Denver International Airport, the runways were closed just before noon Sunday due to blowing snow and poor visibilities. “Many flights have already been canceled so the runway closures have minimal impacts,” airport officials said in social media posts. Nearly 2 feet of snow had fallen at the airport Sunday, the weather service said.
The Northern Colorado Regional Airport that serves the Fort Collins and Loveland areas was closed Sunday after receiving a foot of snow, according to the airport’s social media accounts.
An avalanche warning was in effect Sunday for the Rocky Mountains west of Fort Collins, Boulder, Denver and Colorado Springs where “intense snowfall will cause large and destructive avalanches,” Colorado Avalanche Center said. The center warned that avalanches could happen in unusual locations and recommended against traveling in the backcountry.
An avalanche blocked Colorado Highway 14 in north-central Colorado on Sunday, the Department of Transportation said.
Nearly 32,000 Xcel Energy customers were without power Sunday in north-central Colorado, while smaller outages were reported in the same area by the Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association
Rocky Mountain Power in Wyoming has reported several outages. The power company expects more service interruptions as the storm continues.
“Heavy snow and drifting conditions from wind is expected to make travel and repair work increasingly difficult today,” Curt Mansfield, vice president of operations for Rocky Mountain Power said in a statement Sunday.