The massive storm brought more than 4 feet of snow to northern Colorado by Friday, leaving thousands without power and continuing to make travel dangerous in the mountains and foothills west of Denver.
The storm closed a highway between Denver and a Colorado ski area all day Thursday, leaving some people stuck in their cars for hours. Portions of Interstate 70, the state’s main east-west highway, were initially closed as the storm arrived Wednesday night.
The Colorado storm that began Wednesday night brought the slushy, wet snow typical of March, one of the snowiest months, with up to about 10 inches of snow in Denver. The National Weather Service said 10 to 20 inches of rain fell in metropolitan areas and 2 to 4 feet in the foothills.
Snow piles up underfoot in Denver.Airport and major highways closed
Snow reports are still being collected, but the highest snowfall so far was 53 inches in Nederland, a mountain town near Boulder, the weather service said.
Interstate 70 west of Denver was closed to truck traffic until noon Friday. The main cause of traffic closures on the highway after the storm arrived were trucks stuck in the snow, some without the tire chains needed to travel the route, authorities said. efforts were made to prevent recurrence.
A Jeep passes a stranded snowplow while driving west of Ute Pass on U.S. Highway 24 toward Woodland Park, Colorado, on Thursday, March 14, 2024. A major storm is dumping heavy, wet snow in Colorado on Thursday, March 14, 2024, forcing flight cancellations and highway closures. It connects ski resorts in Denver and Colorado. (Christian Murdoch/The Gazette, via AP)
Drivers stuck behind had to wait for a professional tow truck to arrive to move the big rig out of the way to allow traffic to flow, said Sgt. Patrick Rice of the Colorado State Patrol. The highway reopened to passenger vehicle traffic on Thursday afternoon.
Rice urged departing drivers to bring food and blankets in case they become trapped.
“We’re going to continue to work hard and keep the roads open as much as we can,” Colorado Department of Transportation spokesman Matt Inzeo said.
In a boon for Colorado’s ski industry, extreme weather forced the closure of several ski resorts Thursday. The storm forced many schools and government offices to close on Thursday, and again on Friday in the Denver area.
More than 10,000 customers were without power across Colorado on Thursday, mostly in metro Denver and along the Front Range, according to poweroutage.us.
This storm is a rare type of storm that dumps more snow in the eastern half of the state rather than in the mountains, so it won’t do much to provide water to the Colorado River, which provides water to more than 40 million people in the West. Maybe.
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About 800 flights were canceled at Denver International Airport on Thursday, but only about 20 were canceled on Friday and more than 100 were delayed, according to Flightaware.com.
