Schools Close, Airlines Cancel Flights As Snow Continues
DENVER (CBS4) - Windy, icy conditions and continuing snow caused problems across Colorado's Front Range on Tuesday. A Winter Storm Warning for the Denver metro area continues until 6 p.m.
Two of Colorado's largest school districts -- Denver Public Schools and Jeffco Schools -- announced Monday night they wouldn't hold classes on Tuesday. Many other schools across the area also closed their doors. (See the full list.)
The Denver Zoo also closed for the day due to the conditions. CBS4's Suzanne McCarroll reported on CBS4 News at Noon that families trying to visit the zoo would have been miserable because the wind has been blowing snow everywhere.
Officials at Denver International Airport said there are about 486 flight cancellations and that deicing operations are ongoing.
The CBS4 Mobile Weather Lab was parked at 6th and Simms in the city at 6:30 a.m. and was showing temperature readings of 16 degrees. Wind speeds were being measured in the low teens.
The morning commute was much slower than normal in many areas through the morning rush hour. Visibility improved slightly in the middle of the morning rush, but with that drivers began to think they could go faster and that led to several accidents on slick roads, CBS4 Traffic Joel Hillan reported.
One crash at Colorado Boulevard and Interstate 25 at about 7:25 a.m. forced emergency crews to shut all but one lane heading northbound. There was also a rollover just before that on Interstate 25 at Downing. The ramp from Interstate 225 to westbound Interstate 70 was closed for more than an hour after an accident there. It took crews a while to clean up the scene and clear off the ice.
Strong winds caused damage in Washington County near Akron. One mobile home was destroyed. No one was hurt. There were also power outages in the Akron area due to the winds.
Snow is expected to continue on and off through the rest of the daylight hours.
Officials with the Colorado Department of Transportation said they had 75 snowplows working on streets in the Denver metro area and 300 other plows out working on roads on other parts of the Front Range and on the Eastern Plains.
Blowing snow across the Eastern Plains is also making for poor visibility.
