Snowstorm creates havoc in Colorado
Flights canceled, roads blocked to ski resorts
DENVER — A major storm dumped heavy snow in Colorado on Thursday — forcing flight cancellations and shutting down a highway that connects Denver to Colorado ski resorts.
The storm, which began Wednesday night, delivered the slushy, wet snow typical for March, one of the snowiest months in Denver, and wasn’t expected to wind down until Friday morning. The heaviest accumulations were expected in Colorado’s Front Range region, where the eastern plains meet the Rocky Mountains and the vast majority of the state’s population lives.
Those higher elevations had up to 3 feet of snow by Thursday afternoon and more than another foot was forecast by Friday morning. Denver itself got up to about 8 inches by Thursday. Up to another 10 inches was expected in the Denver area.
A stretch of Interstate 70 was closed in the Colorado mountains, following numerous reports of vehicles stranded on the highway for hours. While a boon to Colorado’s ski industry, the extreme conditions shut down several ski resorts.
More than 75,000 customers were without power across Colorado on Thursday — about 2 percent of electric utility customers statewide and concentrated primarily in metro Denver and along the Front Range, according to poweroutage.us.
The storm also closed numerous schools and government offices Thursday and Denver schools were closed in advance for Friday.
Melanie Brooks was out walking her dogs Thursday morning in Denver.
“I’m kind of sad that I didn’t make it up to the mountains because now it’s tough to drive there, and I’m missing a powder day,” she said.
The Colorado State Patrol urged people to stay off the roads.
“Troopers are getting stuck trying to get to all the stranded motorists,” the patrol posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Since the storm is the rarer kind that brings more snow to the eastern half of the state rather than the mountains, it may not do much to feed the Colorado River, which supplies water to more than 40 million people in the West.
The storm started as rain in the Denver area and turned into snow. The area was expected to get 10 to 20 inches of snow, with up to 2 feet in the western suburbs, the weather service said.
Jarmila Schultz, 77, was tackling her sidewalks in shifts as the snow continued to fall.
“I have to get out early because I have to do it like four times because it’s going to snow all day,” she said, noting she has cleats on her boots to prevent her from falling. “It’s water, ice and it’s very hard for me to lift.”
But she still loves the snow.
“You know, in my time I skied, snow-shoed and did all this and I think Colorado’s incredible for those type of things.”
Denver International Airport was open Thursday, but about 800 flights were canceled with nearly 200 more delayed, according to Flightaware.com.