{"id":2441701,"date":"2019-03-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=301625"},"modified":"2019-03-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-14T06:00:00","slug":"bomb-cyclone-blasts-colo-polis-declares-emergency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/bomb-cyclone-blasts-colo-polis-declares-emergency\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Bomb cyclone\u2019 blasts Colo., Polis declares emergency"},"content":{"rendered":"
Traffic comes to a halt on eastbound Interstate 70 near Tower Road as a late winter storm packing hurricane-force winds and snow sweeps over the intermountain West Wednesday, March 13, 2019, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/strong>
AP | AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

EAGLE \u2014 If you live and play in a ski resort community, snowpocalypse is your friend.<\/p>\n

For Colorado\u2019s Front Range, and travelers trying to get into and out of Eagle County, not so much.<\/p>\n

A statewide blizzard saw 14 of 14 flights canceled at the Eagle County Regional Airport and more than 1,200 at Denver International Airport by mid-afternoon Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Gov. Jared Polis declared a state of emergency Wednesday for the first time in his short tenure, activating the state National Guard to assist state and local authorities in helping hundreds of stranded motorists across the state. Over 500 motorists are reportedly stranded in El Paso County alone.<\/p>\n

Polis spokeswoman Shelby Weiman said Wednesday the state Emergency Operations Center and the Department of Transportation are working with local counties \u201cto prioritize the most immediate needs for those resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStay home,\u201d Amy Ford of the Colorado Department of Transportation said during a Wednesday afternoon media conference call.<\/p>\n

As for the rest of the state, they\u2019re in for it, CDOT officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a statewide blizzard. If people are home, that is the best place to be today,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n

Vail Pass was closed in both directions for most of Wednesday afternoon as CDOT crews did avalanche mitigation.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of CDOT plows have been working since 3 a.m. Wednesday, especially along the Front Range and eastern plains. They\u2019ll stay on snow shifts until they see pavement, possibly Thursday or Friday, Ford said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCDOT crews are doing everything they can, but the winds are high and the snow is falling at incredible rates. Deteriorating conditions have made things dangerous,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n

If you do decide you must head toward the Front Range, you should know that there\u2019s a high risk of avalanche activity, both naturally occurring slides and crews doing avalanche mitigation, Ford said.<\/p>\n

Pack some food, blankets and other provisions, but stay off the roads if you don\u2019t need to be out there, Ford said.<\/p>\n

In fact, if you\u2019re stuck in a road closure, you won\u2019t be allowed to sit on the road in your vehicle and wait for it to reopen. You\u2019ll have to get off the highway and find some shelter, Ford said.<\/p>\n

Local schools in Eagle County canceled all of Wednesday\u2019s after-school activities because of the weather.<\/p>\n

Airlines decide to cancel flights<\/p>\n

Airlines decide whether to cancel commercial flights into Eagle County Regional Airport. Problems in other airports have forced the airlines to do exactly that, said Kris Widlak, Eagle County\u2019s communications manager.<\/p>\n

EGE runways are in good shape and were since 7:30 a.m. Wednesday. However, a low cloud ceiling in Gypsum and systemwide delays from other airports have forced airlines to cancel local flights, Widlak said.<\/p>\n

Private planes were still flying into and out of EGE Wednesday. So were helicopters from the Colorado National Guard\u2019s HAATS base, Widlak said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s called a \u2018bomb cyclone\u2019<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all because a \u201cbomb cyclone\u201d hit Colorado. A bomb cyclone is an area where low pressure drops like, well, a weather bomb.<\/p>\n

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it\u2019s officially called \u201cbombogenesis,\u201d and happens when a cold air mass collides with a warm air mass, creating something like a snow hurricane.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s higher elevations are in for 6 inches or more, said Mike Charnick, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.<\/p>\n

Deepan Dutta in Summit County contributed reporting to this story.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Traffic comes to a halt on eastbound Interstate 70 near Tower Road as a late winter storm packing hurricane-force winds and snow sweeps over the intermountain West Wednesday, March 13, 2019, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)AP | AP EAGLE \u2014 If you live and play in a ski resort community, snowpocalypse is your friend. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2441701","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 08:42:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2441701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2441701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2441701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2441701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2441701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2441701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}