Wintry weather blasted through Colorado Monday night and into Tuesday with heavy, wet snow snapping thousands of tree limbs in Denver and along the Front Range, causing multi-vehicle traffic collisions in the mountains, a rock slide in Glenwood Canyon and multiple grounded flights at Denver International Airport.
Tree limbs snapping in Denver damaged vehicles parked beneath, breaking windshields and smashing roofs, hoods and trunks. Some residents rushing out the door Tuesday morning had to rearrange the day after finding huge tree limbs had destroyed vehicles.
In the mountains, traffic flow on the Interstate-70 corridor was interrupted, and shut down, at several stretches on Monday and Tuesday by weather-related, multiple-vehicle crashes. The Colorado Department of Transportation shut down eastbound I-70 just east of the Eisenhower Tunnel early Monday morning after icy, slushy roads triggered numerous car crashes. Multiple closures happened along the I-70 corridor into the night Monday and the pattern — closures due to multiple crashes — continued into Tuesday.
The spring storm made roads slick, icy, snow-covered and slushy in spots. In some areas, water and slush triggered massive splash ups, splattering onto windshields of vehicles in adjacent lanes.
Just before 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, “multiple crashes” shut down I-70 in both directions over Vail Pass, according to the Colorado State Patrol.
RELATED: Colorado snow totals for May 20-21, 2019
In Glenwood Canyon a massive rock slide at about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday shut down I-70 in both directions. Boulders, the size of small SUVs, crashed down on the highway from the mountain above. Wet spring weather and the freeze thaw process is typically the trigger of dangerous slides. On Tuesday, no vehicles were hit by the massive rocks, said Trooper Josh Lewis, a CSP spokesman.
I-70 MT CORRIDOR UPDATE: EB lanes opened at 10:45. WB lanes are still closed at MP 133. Crews are working to get one lane open as soon as possible. Rock and road work will continue throughout the day, even after one lane WB is open, so please drive with caution through area.
— Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) (@ColoradoDOT)
CDOT crews used heavy equipment to clear the road of rocks and debris. Eastbound lanes of I-70 in the canyon reopened at about 10:45 a.m. Tuesday. Westbound traffic flowed later in the day, although the right lane westbound remained closed into late afternoon.
The wintry weather brought turmoil to DIA on Tuesday where at least 82 incoming and outgoing flights were canceled, including 18 United Airlines flights, 17 Southwest Airlines flights and four Frontier flights, according to FlightAware.
The canceled flights led to long lines at customer service counters where weary, stranded flyers rearranged travel.
Atlanta resident Al Bartell, 63, a communications management consultant, said about 500 passengers were lined up Tuesday morning at the Frontier customer service desk.
“Itap a nightmare,” Bartell said. “The tension really started. There were children there crying. Children, elderly and disabled suffered the most.”
Neither DIA, nor Frontier, offered water or food to travelers, Bartell said, as they stood for hours in long lines. DIA had 3.4 inches of snow at 6 a.m., according to the National Weather Service.
Snow totals, according to the weather service, from the spring storm piled high in some areas, especially east of Colorado Springs, including: Black Forest, 20 inches; Peyton, 18 inches; and Monument, 15 inches.
