A sprawling, powerful November storm Monday and Tuesday is bringing blizzard conditions to Colorado, severe weather and tornadoes to the southern Plains and flooding rains to the Mississippi Valley.
Advertisement
Truck driver Fernando Rendell said he was headed to Kansas City, Missouri, but stopped after seeing two trucks in the ditch along the slick interstate.
Several inches of snow have fallen in the plains of eastern Colorado, and up to 15 inches of snow is expected in western Kansas.
All lanes of Interstate 70 were closed from the Kansas border east to E-470 outside Denver on Tuesday morning.
The weather service said the storm would continue to move eastward after it closed roads east and south of Denver, which had been forecast to receive heavy snow but was spared from the heaviest snowfall. No one was inside the building at the time, but hazardous materials teams were working to contain a chemical leak.
“Blizzard conditions will quickly develop as the snow accumulates”, the National Weather Service warned. This is the most snow for a single event in the area since 2006.
Truckers trying to push south on Interstate 25 near Castle Rock, Colo., stop to put on chains on their vehicles to deal with snow and ice.
But Dankers said that even when the snow tapers off, sustained winds of 30 to 40 miles per hour, with gusts of up to 50 miles per hour, could create bitterly cold and risky conditions.
Advertisement
Denver worldwide Airport is warning passengers that arriving flights could be delayed by up to 90 minutes because federal officials are slowing down traffic there to prevent longer delays. The storm that originated in the Gulf of Alaska could be a harbinger of El Nino, the ocean-warming phenomenon that’s predicted to bring heavy rain to the West in the coming months, said Kathy Hoxsie of the National Weather Service. Downed trees blocked roads overnight and at least 10,000 customers remain without electricity across Los Angeles County.
