A traveler makes his way to a shuttle stop after a pre-Thanksgiving holiday snowstorm caused more than 460 flight cancellations at Denver International Airport, Colorado, US, November 26, 2019.
A powerful snowstorm swept across Colorado and into the US Midwest on Tuesday, blocking roads and causing hundreds of flight cancellations that threatened travel plans for many people hoping to fly or drive to Thanksgiving feasts this week.
The storm dumped 30 cm of snow in parts of Colorado and buffeted the Denver area with wind gusts of 72 km/h.
Nearly 500 flights were canceled and more than 350 delayed at Denver International Airport by Tuesday afternoon.
"We just landed at the Denver Airport! Crazy conditions. Literally 0 visibility," Amber Kimbrell, a high school science teacher from Huntsville, Alabama, said in a Twitter message. She posted a photo of a runway covered in white.
An American Airlines jet taxis down a snow-covered runway after a pre-Thanksgiving holiday snowstorm caused more than 460 flight cancellations at Denver International Airport, Colorado, US, November 26, 2019.
Some 55 million travelers planned to fly or drive at least 80 km from their homes for the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, according to the American Automobile Association, but the snow will likely alter those plans for many.
"Nothing like starting Thanksgiving break with boarding the plane in the snow, sitting on the tarmac for 2 hours," Jude Matyo-Cepero, a University of Nebraska professor, wrote on Instagram.
City of Denver snowplows clear the eastbound lanes of Speer Blvd as a storm packing snow and high winds sweeps in over the region on Tuesday, Nov 26, 2019, in Denver.
By early Tuesday afternoon, the storm was pushing northeast, with parts of northwest Kansas and western Nebraska reporting snow accumulation 10 to 20 cm, coupled with winds of 80 km/h, the National Weather Service said.
Treacherous conditions forced the closure of eastbound Interstate 70 from east of Denver to the Kansas state line, and Interstate 76 from Denver northeast to the Nebraska state line, the Colorado Department of Transportation said. Officials advised drivers to stay off the roads, with strong winds creating white-out conditions across the region.
A long line of parked vehicles sit covered with snow as a snowstorm sweeps over the region on Tuesday, Nov 26, 2019, in Denver.
Schools and many retailers in the Denver metropolitan area were closed. But grocery stores, already well-stocked ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, were ready for a deluge of customers.
"So far so good. It doesn't seem to be impacting us much," Phil Vanderlaan, a cashier at a Safeway store in Denver, said by phone. "Probably later throughout the day it might."
A stronger storm was expected to hit Northern California and Oregon by Tuesday night, the weather service said, which may drop 30 to 90 cm of snow across mountainous areas.
Copyright © 2024 TRT World.