Metro Denver will start to thaw Tuesday following a four-day blast of Arctic cold and snow, though Coloradans can expect lingering impacts from the storm, including canceled classes for tens of thousands of students.
Subzero temperatures, wind and snow continued to cause problems across Colorado on Monday, from delayed and curtailed Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations to canceled flights and extended highway closures.
Organizers for Denver’s 40th annual MLK Day Marade celebration delayed the event by 30 minutes on Monday morning and canceled the closing ceremony, resource fair and Dr. King Legacy Bike Ride, citing a wind chill of 17 degrees below zero.
Evening temperatures were forecast to fall to minus 9 degrees, which is short of the record low for the day set in 1888 at minus 20 degrees, according to the agency.
It’s not yet clear how the four-day cold spell impacted people experiencing homelessness.Though Denver opened 24-hour severe weather shelters through Tuesday morning, city officials confirmed Monday that the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner is investigating the deaths of four people outdoors since Friday.
Not all of the deaths were among people experiencing homelessness and it is too early to say how many of the deaths were related to the cold, according to the city.
While temperatures are forecast to rise above freezing on Tuesday, dozens of Front Range school districts canceled or delayed classes due to the weather, including in Denver, Aurora, Westminster, Englewood, Littleton and Adams, Jefferson and Douglas counties.
Colorado State University announced that the and all classes canceled on Tuesday while the University of Colorado Boulder is at 10 a.m.
Rooms at the Capitol will also be largely empty on Tuesday, with state lawmakers canceling Tuesday’s due to weather.
Monday’s severe weather continued to impact travelers across the state, with Denver International Airport reporting more than 1,200 delayed and canceled flights on Monday. There were 378 flights canceled and 884 flights delayed as of 5 p.m.,
Road and highway closures from the eastern plains to southwest Colorado also snarled travel plans throughout the day on Monday. Drivers encountered hours-long closures on Interstate 70 near Vail, Silverthorne and Floyd Hill as well as southbound Interstate 25 near Dacono. Berthoud, Loveland, Cameron and Red Mountain passes were still closed as of 6:45 p.m.
Travel impacts began earlier in the weekend when a sliding snow bank buried 10 vehicles Sunday morning on Berthoud Pass, though no one was injured and road crews were able to remove the vehicles within an hour.
Travelers should expect more road delays for winter maintenance and snow removal on Tuesday, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation.
The snow, wind and cold caused plenty of headaches across the state over the weekend, but the winter storms also brought significant gains for Colorado ski resorts, including 50 inches of newly accumulated snow at Monarch, 48 inches at Steamboat and 46 inches at Crested Butte.
Winter Park received 42, Eldora 40, Wolf Creek 39, Copper Mountain 37 and Vail 35.
Resorts recording 24 to 32 inches of new snow included Arapahoe Basin, Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, Aspen Highlands, Loveland, Cooper, Powderhorn and Keystone.
The Arctic blast will start to dissipate Tuesday as Denver is set to warm up to 35 degrees, though wind chill could still make it feel as cold as 12 degrees below zero, according to the National Weather Service.
Highs in Denver are set to reach above freezing as the week goes on, with a high of 47 degrees on Wednesday, 46 degrees on Thursday and 34 degrees on Friday.
Weekend temperatures are forecast to reach the low 50s, according to the agency.
Denver Post reporters Aldo Svaldi and John Meyer contributed to this report.
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