DENVER (AP) – Thousands in Colorado, United States, were without power as authorities closed highways and schools during a winter storm that pummelled the Denver area and threatened to drop another half foot there overnight into yesterday.
The storm comes as other parts of the country face severe weather. Massive chunks of hail pelted parts of Kansas and Missouri on Wednesday night, with storms unleashing possible tornadoes in Kansas. Earlier this month, a blizzard dumped more than three metres of snow on a northern California ski resort.
The Colorado storm shut down a stretch of Interstate 70, the state’s main east-west highway, in the mountains for much of the day on Thursday, stranding some drivers for hours, mainly because of trucks that got stuck in the snow, blocking other traffic, authorities said.
The storm, which began on Wednesday night, delivered the slushy, wet snow typical for March, one of the snowiest months in Denver. The heaviest accumulations were expected in Colorado’s Front Range region, where the eastern plains meet the Rocky Mountains and the vast majority of the state’s population lives.
Those higher elevations had up to 91 centimetres (cm) of snow by Thursday and more than another 30cm was forecast for yesterday morning. Denver itself got up to about 23cm by Thursday. Another eight to 18cm was expected in the Denver area for yesterday morning.
