The weather across Colorado was as bizarre as it was varied Saturday, with up to 4 feet of snow at southwestern ski areas, temperatures in the high 60s along the Eastern Plains and freezing rain that shut down several highways and left one dead.
An accident involving a semi tractor-trailer was one of several that closed Interstate 25 north of Wellington to Wyoming on Saturday morning for several hours, said Mike Murray, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Transportation.
Near the same town, one man was killed when he was ejected from a van that slid off southbound I-25, rolled and struck a fence, the Colorado State Patrol said. His identity was not released. The van driver and two other passengers were injured.
Denver and the eastern half of the state are sandwiched between a snowstorm that pounded southwestern Colorado and a storm system that is blanketing states from Nebraska to Iowa with freezing rain, according to the National Weather Service.
But while Denver saw a little light rain between bursts of sunshine Saturday, neither storm is forecast to hit the metro area. Denver is being protected by opposing wind flows that are keeping the snow to the southwest and pushing the freezing rain farther east, Weather Service meteorologist Bob Glancy said.
“We are just in the wrong location for this precipitation, and we wouldn’t have wanted it anyway because it would have been freezing rain,” Glancy said. Six inches of snow forced Beaver Creek ski area to cancel the men’s World Cup super-G competition, but the Silverton Mountain Ski Area, in the San Juan Mountains, was thrilled with 4 feet of powder at mid-mountain by midday.
Pita Odaly, an employee of the Brown Bear Cafe in Silverton, said the streets had a foot of snow when she headed for work in the morning. The drive was particularly nerve-racking because the snow hid the icy patches caused by the 4 inches of rain the town got the night before, she said.
“It was so slushy. I didn’t dare take my car out of four-wheel drive,” Odaly said. “It’s just been snowing nonstop all day. Unbelievable.”
Meanwhile, it was 70 degrees under sunny skies in La Junta, according to the Weather Service.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
