It’s no longer falling from the sky in most places, but thanks to powerful winds the snow on the ground around Denver and across northeastern and central Colorado is wreaking havoc on Saturday travel.
By late Saturday afternoon, the Colorado Department of Transportation had shut more than a dozen segments of highway around the state for safety. Those closures are mainly in areas to the north and east of Denver where high winds are picking up fallen snow and creating dangerous, low-visibility driving conditions.
The closures include Interstate 25 from Wellington north to the Wyoming line, U.S. 85 between Nunn and the state line and Interstate 76 between Hudson and Fort Morgan.
Elisabeth Kinsey was returning home to Denver on Saturday after visiting relatives in Iowa for Thanksgiving. She got stuck in Fort Morgan after the I-76 closure.
“You can call it an epic failure of CDOT,” Kinsey said. “There’s not a bed to be had. Food’s running out in restaurants. This little town does not have the infrastructure to host all these people at the holiday.”
She said she planned to sleep in her car if the interstate did not reopen.
Even some detour routes such as Colorado 52 between Hudson and Wiggins have been closed.
“We’re seeing just tons of alerts come through as our crews are seeing conditions on the ground,” CDOT spokesman Matt Inzeo said.
Unlike a snowstorm when crews can plow roads and improve conditions, there isn’t much CDOT can do to make travel safer amid high winds.
“You enforce safety closures when they’re necessary, but you have to wait for conditions to change,” he said.
According to the National Weather Service, 75 to 85 mph wind gusts were possible along the Front Range, and the northeast plains could get 65 mph wind gusts Saturday.
“The high winds are pretty much here for the day,” said David Barjenbruch, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service based in Boulder. “After that last storm, some places had more than a foot of loose snow lying on the ground. That strong wind is picking up the loose snow and blowing it around and causing really poor visibility and road closures.”
10 miles south of the Colorado- Wyoming border on I-25 pic.twitter.com/Tl9Scq2DaK
— CSP Larimer (@CSP_Larimer) November 30, 2019
In a hazardous weather outlook report, the Weather Service warned that vehicles with high profiles are at risk of blowing over when traveling through northeast and north-central Colorado on Saturday, particularly on north-south roads. A number of north-south highways are closed with no reopening times listed on CDOT’s COTrip.org road conditions map.
The conditions are leading to some mayhem across the state.
Just north of Longmont, a portion a U.S. 287 was closed for about an hour Saturday afternoon because of four crashes involving a total of eight to 10 cars. A 74-year-old woman involved in the tangle was taken to a hospital with chest injuries. The State Patrol is still investigating the series of wrecks, but high winds and icy conditions are believed to have been factors.
It’s not just the flatlands being impacted. Barjenbruch noted that in the mountains powerful wind gusts are making for scary conditions on high passes. There is still snow falling in valley areas such as Silverthorne.
Road closures are popping in those areas, too.
Southwest of Denver, U.S. 285 is expected to be closed throughout the day over Kenosha Pass between Grant and Fairplay, according to a CDOT tweet. Inzeo said that although portions of the highway have been open at times throughout the day, 285 has been more or less consistently closed since Friday night.
On Friday, closures on I-70 caused headaches for would-be skiers and folks trying to get to Denver. Both directions were shut down for hours because of rockslides. So far on Saturday, I-70 has remained open, but winds are depriving some skiers and boarders of coveted mountain time.
Eldora ski resort west of Boulder shut down shortly after opening Saturday morning. A 91 mph wind gust was recorded near the resort at 9:30 a.m.
Conditions on the northeastern plains were so inhospitable Saturday, the city of Greeley is shuffling it’s holiday plans. The city’s Greeley Lights the Night Parade was canceled because of the weather, according to the Greeley Tribune.
“The snow and ice along the route raise safety concerns and the brutal winds with low temps make it impossible for many of the parade entries and not fun for anyone outside,” city officials wrote in a press release.
Conditions in Wyoming and Nebraska are similarly treacherous, Barjenbruch said. For those visiting Denver for the Thanksgiving holiday and looking to return home this weekend, he recommends staying put for the day until the wind gusts die down.
“Probably wait until tomorrow,” he said. “We will probably have much better travel conditions across the region.”
The National Weather Service forecast calls for sunny skies and high near 41 degrees in Denver on Sunday. Winds are expected to be minimal.
The Daily Camera contributed to this report.
This story was last updated at 7:20 p.m. Check cotrip.org for the latest road closures.
