Heavy winds and snowfall from a “cyclone bomb” and storms caused highway closures on Tuesday in Colorado and Wyoming, cancellation of classes in Nebraska, and forced more than a thousand travelers to spend the night at the Denver airport due to the cancellation of hundreds of flights, due to an increase in demand on the occasion of the Thanksgiving holiday.
The storm was heading to South Dakota, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, while a meteorological phenomenon known as “cyclone bomb” began to tear down trees and power lines with heavy snowfall on its way to California and Oregon, a solid combination of 1-2 winter weather in US territory.
The “cyclone bomb” occurs by a rapid pressure drop below 24 millibars (a measure that records atmospheric pressure) for 24 hours, which is called bombogenesis, and the lower the pressure, the greater the power of the storm, meteorologists said.
Authorities in California and Oregon reported several traffic accidents and road closures. The National Meteorological Service urged people to delay their holiday transfers until the weather improves.
At Denver International Airport, about 25 centimeters of snow and strong winds that limited visibility caused the cancellation of about 30% of the 1,600 flights averaged daily at the airport.
The storm left almost a meter of snow in parts of northern Colorado and caused closures on long stretches of highways there and in Wyoming.
One person was killed and two others were injured after a cargo truck got in the road and was struck by two other trucks on Interstate 70 near the Vail ski center in Colorado.
The weather system moved toward allowing the airport to Denver resume normal operations.
Southwest Airlines canceled about 200 flights. Spokesman Brad Hawkins said “a couple of days” will be required to reschedule affected passengers on other flights due to the few places available for Thanksgiving dates.
Around 1,100 people spent the night at the airport, including several cadets of the Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs who missed their flights or wanted to arrive at the airport before highway conditions worsened, spokeswoman Alex Airport said Renteria.
Source: Yucatan
