December 20-21, 2006 Colorado Blizzard

Colorado Holiday Blizzard I

The Holiday Blizzard I was an intense blizzard that covered the Colorado Front Range, the Colorado Eastern Plains and surrounding states. It began on December 20, 2006 with a powerful blizzard which crippled the region, forcing the closures of Interstate Highways 25, 76 and 70, as well as U.S. Routes 36 and 85. The city of Denver was shut down, the US Mail was undeliverable, and a state wide disaster was declared. Many grocery stores, department retailers and other service providing institutions were shut down or severely limited in the diversity of their supplies.

Colorado Holiday Blizzard II

The Holiday Blizzard II was another intense snow storm (though less intense than the "Holiday Blizzard I") This storm struck Colorado on December 28 and December 29. Coming so soon after the first blizzard and forecast to be another major storm, the approach of this storm prompted runs on grocery stores, hardware stores (for snow shovels, snow blowers and generators, among other items) as residents prepared to be snowed in for a second time. Due to the previous heavy snowfalls and lack of snow removal many residential streets (still nearly impassable from the first storm) were unmanageable.

Impact

Effects on Travel

This blizzard closed the Denver International Airport (DIA) at 2:45PM MST on the same day, stranding upwards of 40,000 at the airport. Due to DIA's remote location, many people were forced to spend the night inside the airport, sleeping on cots or the floor. As DIA is a major hub for national travel, an estimated 100,000 people were affected by the closure. The airport reopened 22 December at 12:00PM MST.

Greyhound buses canceled all routes into, out of, and through Denver due to the storm.

Deaths

The blizzard has caused four confirmed deaths, including one former CSU professor [http://www.9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME=KUSA&IKOBJECTID=c059d79b-0abe-421a-0106-72623b9d3a0b&TEMPLATEID=0c76dce6-ac1f-02d8-0047-c589c01ca7bf] and a University of Colorado undergraduate student. Over two dozen deaths have been reported in the Colorado, Kansas and the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles as a result of this storm.Along the plains, approximately 3,500 cows were found dead due to the cold and severe weather conditions as well.

Blizzard I

It was estimated that drifts in some areas of Denver reached up to 6 feet, with an average depth of about 3 feet. By most estimates, it was the 4th largest storm in state recorded history, (though some readings place it at 6th), and the largest state blizzard since March 2003. Due to the El Niño effect, the probability of more major storms of this type is higher for the Denver region.

Notable amounts include:

*Boulder, Colorado -- 32 inches
*Longmont, Colorado -- 20 inches
*Estes Park, Colorado -- 17 inches
*Fort Collins, Colorado -- 21 inches
*Golden, Colorado --17 inches in about10 hrs
*Littleton, Colorado -- 22 inches
*Monument, Colorado -- 27 inches

Blizzard II

The second blizzard to hit Colorado followed a nearly identical path, with nearly identical conditions. However, this storm slipped south and hit the Southeastern Colorado Plains, Kansas and the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles with severe wind and snow conditions.

*Castle Rock, Colorado -- 7.5 inches
*Boulder, Colorado -- 24 inches.
*Evergreen, Colorado -- 20.5 inches
*Littleton, Colorado -- 10.5 inches
*Golden, Colorado -- 17 inches in 10hrs
*Monument, Colorado -- 14 inches

Regional Effects

Holiday Blizzard I was focused mainly on the Colorado Front Range, resulting in far smaller snow totals for the mountain ski resorts.

Holiday Blizzard II hit the Colorado Front Range almost as hard as the first storm, however, this storm moved south and east, burying the Southeastern Colorado Plains with 3' of snow, with snowdrifts topping 10' in some places.

Denver

The "Denver Christmas Blizzard of 2006" began early on Wednesday December 20, 2006, as a storm blew through the eastern plains of Colorado spilling as much as two feet of snow up and down Interstate-25, from Fort Collins to Pueblo. The entire state was mired in drifts of snow up to 8 feet high and, at some locations, even higher drifts existed. Downtown Denver, in particular, experienced severe economic hardships as a result since so many paths were not clear for potential customers, but it was the same throughout many places. Denver International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the world and one of the busiest places in Colorado, which rarely closes for weather, shut down operations for two days, and in the midst of Christmas traveling, the closing of DIA caused a ripple effect across the United States. Hundreds of flights were canceled, and many upset travelers were stranded in the DIA terminals, and even though the plows' uses were maximized to try and clear the runways, thousands of travelers were forced to extend their stay at DIA. Many roads throughout the state were unpassable, schools and other community functions were canceled immediately, and the general public of Colorado was snowed in.

Relief Efforts

After Holiday Blizzard II the Colorado National Guard was sent to the Southeastern Colorado Plains in an attempt to access small towns isolated by heavy snowdrifts. Haydrops were instituted to feed thousands of stranded, starving cattle. Guardsmen in small helicopters were sent to break ice on water tanks for the cattle to drink.

On January 5, 2007, Senator Wayne Allard (R-Colo) and Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo) introduced legislation that would give aid to the state, counties, cities, as well as residents and livestock owners who suffered blizzard-related losses in Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. The bill would declare the heaviest hit regions as "major disaster areas" and provide those hardest hit with FEMA and other federal aid.

After the Storm

"The Holiday Blizzards I and II," as they were named, were followed by an additional storm bearing more than a foot of snow on January 4-5, bringing the snowfall total for 16 days to more than 80 inches in some areas.

On January 4, 2007 United Airlines announced more than $40 million in losses from the storm's effects on holiday travel.

At this time, an unknown number of cattle have been lost due to starvation, dehydration and shock due to the heavy snow. The losses are expected to number in the tens of thousands, with millions of dollars of damage to the cattle industry in Colorado, Kansas and other cattle ranching areas hit hard by this storm. Losses may reach 15,000 cattle in Colorado.

References