Mark Reis, The Gazette via APHigh winds toppled a tree into the street and on top of a parked car in the 500 block of N. Walnut Street Monday, Jan. 9, 2017, in Colorado Springs, Colo. High winds have overturned some large vehicles and damaged buildings in the Colorado Springs area while ice is making travel dangerous in western Colorado.
Mark Reis, The Gazette via APCalvary Baptist Church senior pastor Kyle Sullivan, right, embraces church attendee Lynn Monday, Monday, Jan. 9, 2017 after high winds blew off a portion of the roof of the church sanctuary in Colorado Springs, Colo. High winds have overturned some large vehicles and damaged buildings in the Colorado Springs area while ice is making travel dangerous in western Colorado.
Mark Reis, The Gazette via APThe bubble over the Country Club of Colorado Aquatic Center is in tatters from high winds Monday, Jan. 9, 2017, in Colorado Springs Colo. High winds have overturned some large vehicles and damaged buildings in the Colorado Springs area while ice is making travel dangerous in western Colorado.
Mark Reis, The Gazette via APA rolled semi slows I-25 in the southbound lanes just north of the S. Academy Blvd exit Monday, Jan. 9, 2017, in Colorado Springs, Colo. High winds have overturned some large vehicles and damaged buildings in the Colorado Springs area while ice is making travel dangerous in western Colorado.
RJ Sangosti, The Denver PostBerenice Nuss, who lives next to two homes that burned in Leyden Rock in Arvada, holds her hand to her chest after looking at the damage of her neighbors homes, January 09, 2017. Fire crews used a defensive strategy to extinguish the blaze, which was fueled by strong winds. An Arvada firefighter was taken to a hospital with minor injuries Monday morning after being hurt battling a blaze that consumed several homes.
RJ Sangosti, The Denver PostArvada Fire crews work a fire where two homes in Leyden Rock subdivision where destroyed, January 09, 2017. Fire crews used a defensive strategy to extinguish the blaze, which was fueled by strong winds. An Arvada firefighter was taken to a hospital with minor injuries Monday morning after being hurt battling a blaze that consumed several homes.
RJ Sangosti, The Denver PostArvada Fire crews work a fire where two homes in Leyden Rock subdivision where destroyed, January 09, 2017. Fire crews used a defensive strategy to extinguish the blaze, which was fueled by strong winds. An Arvada firefighter was taken to a hospital with minor injuries Monday morning after being hurt battling a blaze that consumed several homes.
Paul Aiken, Daily CameraA tree that fell in a yard on East Emma Street in Lafayette on Monday, Jan. 9, 2017.
Paul Aiken, Daily CameraStephen Agin, left, and Chris Carboni help to clear limbs from a tree that fell into their front yard on East Emma Street in Lafayette on Monday, Jan. 9, 2017.
Lewis Geyer, Daily CameraTom Bennett secures a fence while collecting pieces of his 120' by 30' pole barn which blew down in high winds west of Berthoud Monday, Jan. 9, 2017.
Lewis Geyer, Daily CameraRemnants of a 120' by 30' pole barn lay across Tom Bennett's property after the barn blew down west of Berthoud Monday, Jan. 09, 2017.
Mark Reis, The Gazette via APFox Meadow Middle School teacher Miriam Dagen fights the wind as she leaves school Monday, Jan. 9, 2017, in Colorado Springs, Colo. The school was closed Monday morning due to wind damage. Dagen also found windows of her car shattered by the wind. High winds have overturned some large vehicles and damaged buildings in the Colorado Springs area while ice is making travel dangerous in western Colorado.
Randy McIntosh, CDOT via APIn this photo, made available by the Colorado Department of Transportation, a fire crew responds Monday, Jan. 9, 2017, at the scene of an overturned diesel tanker truck involved in a high wind-related accident, with the tanker spilling about 2000 gallons of diesel, along Interstate 70 near Gypsum, in western Colo. High winds have overturned some large vehicles and damaged buildings in the Colorado Springs area while ice is making travel dangerous in western Colorado.
Lewis Geyer, Daily CameraRemnants of a 120' by 30' pole barn lay across Tom Bennett's property after the barn blew down west of Berthoud Monday, Jan. 09, 2017.
Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette via APA large tree is uprooted on Main Street in Security, Colo., on Monday, Jan. 9, 2017, when the Pikes Peak region was hit hard with high winds. Hurricane-force wind gusts knocked over trucks, sent roof shingles flying and downed powerlines in the Colorado Springs area on Monday while a tanker truck overturned on an icy stretch of Interstate 70 in the mountains.
Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette via APTwo semi-trucks were blown over on S. Academy Blvd. in Colorado Springs, Colo., were blown over by high winds, one in the foreground and another can be seen in the distance on Monday, Jan. 9, 2016.
Mark Reis, The Gazette via AP
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High winds toppled a tree into the street and on top of a parked car in the 500 block of N. Walnut Street Monday, Jan. 9, 2017, in Colorado Springs, Colo. High winds have overturned some large vehicles and damaged buildings in the Colorado Springs area while ice is making travel dangerous in western Colorado.
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By Patrick Traylor | ptraylor@denverpost.com | The Denver Post
PUBLISHED: | UPDATED:
Getting your player ready...
A powerful winter storm system Monday kicked off a week of expected wild weather in Colorado, hammering Colorado Springs with hurricane-force winds that uprooted trees and forced Fort Carson soldiers to shelter in place, and dumping so much snow in the high country that a ski area had to close.
On the Western Slope, a state snowplow slid off a roadway in freezing rain and a 40-mile stretch of mountain passes was shuttered because of skier-triggered and natural avalanches.
