I had just got back into my cozy Denver hotel room when I found this out:
Interstate 70 from just east of Denver to the Kansas state line was shut down today, October 29, 2009, due to blizzard conditions on the Eastern Plains from east of the city to the Kansas state line. Kyle Fredin, spokesman for the National Weather Service, was quoted as saying, “The winds are starting to crank up as this low exits.” In both directions– from Airpark Road to the state line, the Colorado Department of Transportation said.
36 mph wind gusts are dropping visibilty on the plains. In areas visibility has been cut to less than a quarter of a mile. For the Front Range, snow may be expected to continue, but will decrease to snow showers as the storm moves east across the plains. As na aside if you get stuck in Denver due to bad weather or any other reason and you need a good Denver Hotel room then may I suggest the Hilton Gardenn Inn, which is located downtown near the 16th street mall and near pepsi center. I highly recommend their Denver hotel rooms for your stay.
18 miles northeast of downtown Denver, a deep low-pressure system is advancing from southern Colorado into western Kansas. The Denver International Airport is reporting hours of delays as the blizzard conditions cover the airport this afternoon. In addition to all of this, a Denver Blizzard Caused some Back Ups for Frontier, United and Other airlines. Specifically, Frontier Airlines reported up to four-hour delays, with winds blowing snow 20-30 miles per hour with even higher sporadic gusts. The airline said the airport was struggling to maintain the runways and were being used only minimally. Further, Frontier said they had to cancel their flights this morning, in and out of Denver. Frontier does not expect any more cancellations at this time.
United Airlines was forced to cancel half of its 400 flights today, and Frontier cancelled 19. United spokesman, Charlie Hobart, said that out of six runways, only two are being used.
There were hundreds of accidents around Denver today, thankfully all of them minor. Some traffic was halted altogether by the conditions that made for dangerous driving in the area.
The Denver area is expected to experience snow until Saturday night. The Colorado Rockies playoff game against the Philadelphia Phillies has been postponed.
South of Denver in Colorado Springs, 20 to 30 vehicles were involved in a multicar crash on southbound I-25 near South Nevada Street at around 6:15 a.m., police reported. The I-25 freeway was blocked. A detour at Exit 140 was set up.