Colorado weather: Thursday forecast brings cold, perhaps more snow

LIVE BLOG: Updates and images on the latest winter storm

Denver drivers who survived Wednesday evening’s teeth-gnashing, white-knuckle commute won’t be getting a break anytime soon.

“There’s a chance of snow every day — and it’s going to be cold,” said Jim Kalina of the National Weather Service in Boulder. “We’ll be lucky if the temperatures get up to freezing by Monday, and even then it will cool back off by Wednesday.”

By then, perhaps the memories of Wednesday’s horror show will be forgotten. The weather deteriorated rapidly as snow fell with the temperatures.

TRAFFIC: Learn about traffic conditions and travel times

Eastbound Interstate 70 was closed at Lookout Mountain after the Colorado Department of Transportation said 50 vehicles were involved in a string of accidents. At least 20 vehicles were towed.

Later, about 8:30 p.m., I-70 was closed in both directions from C-470 to Idaho Springs because of more accidents. There was no estimated time of reopening.

In the city, online traffic maps showed vehicles moving at a crawl or stalled throughout the metro area. Streets in downtown Denver were bumper to bumper.

DIA: Get Denver flight departure and arrival times

Deeper into the mountains, westbound I-70 over Vail Pass was closed for several hours because of a semi-tractor trailer on its side across westbound lanes.

At the start of Wednesday’s evening rush hour, officially, there was less than an inch of accumulated snow in Denver. But snow fell steadily on the snarled traffic, and more than 3 inches was reported by late evening.

Commuters who left their vehicles at home also ran into some tough luck — the Regional Transportation District said bus routes were delayed from 10 to 30 minutes.

At Denver International Airport, the skies weren’t much friendlier. According to officials, there were roughly 75 cancellations for the day, or about 5 percent of total flights. Many of those were on regional flights using smaller aircraft, the airport said.

Because of the wind and snow, the Federal Aviation Administration enacted an aircraft traffic management plan for DIA. The plan holds, for almost an hour, aircraft departing for DIA to space out arrivals.

With February ending Saturday, it appears Denver will fall short of setting a snowfall record for the month. The record of 22.1 inches was set in 1912. As of Wednesday night, according to the service, the total accumulation for the month was about 18.2 inches.

“It’s possible,” Kalina said. “There’s another system that’s coming in, but it’s not looking very impressive right now. If that changes, we could get close.”