Weather Forces Event & School Cancellations, Makes Travel Tricky
DENVER (CBS) - A winter storm has blown into Denver and brought snow, ice and bitter cold temperatures with it. Most events were canceled Monday evening and all major schools in the Denver area are closed for Tuesday.
Link: List of school closings
This weather comes as quite a shock after the 60 degree temperatures along the Front Range just a few days ago. The thermometer was dropping throughout the day Monday as an arctic air mass was dropping into Colorado. Tuesday's high temperature will be only about 3 below zero.
Freezing rain in the early morning hours left behind a coat of ice on many windshields and the commute for many drivers was exceptionally slow.
At Denver International Airport there were at least 45 cancellations, but many more delays, due partly to Denver's weather and also to weather in the Midwest and northeast states. Many airlines on Monday were waiving their change fees for flyers headed to the Midwest and northeast.
Wait times in the security lines at DIA weren't bad -- only about 5 minutes.
"This is really a pretty normal Monday night for us. We have minor delays … and those are really just because of aircraft de-icing," Jenny Schiavone with DIA said.
About 125,000 passengers were at DIA on Monday. Schiavone said that is about average.
"We generally average about 136,000 or 137,000 passengers, so it's not too far off that mark, but we're a little bit slower in January with traffic."
(Watch the full interview with Schiavone in the video clip below)
Schiavone said DIA made a great effort preparing for the storm.
"We really make every effort to get ahead of the storm when we know a storm is coming our way," she said. "We started pre-treating the roadways last night and continued with that throughout the day today, getting the snow off the ground and off the runways, and we're really in good shape."
Denver Public Schools canceled all after-school programs and activities for Monday. That includes all athletic activities and all Kaleidoscope Corner programs.
(Watch meteorologist Dave Aguilera break down the storm as it moves in on Monday and gets colder on Tuesday)
