Shopping carts topped with heavy snow sit marooned in the lot of a grocery store as a late winter storm dropped up to a foot of snow Thursday, March 14, 2024, in Golden, Colo.Shopping carts topped with heavy snow sit marooned in the lot of a grocery store as a late winter storm dropped up to a foot of snow Thursday, March 14, 2024, in Golden, Colo.
Those higher elevations had up to 3 feet of snow by Thursday and more than another foot was forecast by Friday morning. Denver itself got up to about 9 inches by Thursday. Up to another 10 inches were expected in the Denver area.A mountain stretch of Interstate 70, the state's main east-west highway, closed as the storm moved in Wednesday night. Trucks, many without the tire chains required to travel the route, got stuck and blocked other vehicles from getting through for hours.
While a boon to Colorado's ski industry, the extreme conditions shut down several ski resorts. The storm also closed numerous schools and government offices Thursday and Denver area schools were closed in advance for Friday. "I'm kind of sad that I didn't make it up to the mountains because now it's tough to drive there, and I'm missing a powder day," she said.
Denver deployed 36 residential plows starting at 3 a.m. Thursday with the plan to shave the top few inches of snow off streets, to help clear paths to main streets.