Snowstorm leads to crashes, interstate closure in Colorado

Denver's largest snowstorm in the month of January in 31 years is leading to a large number of crashes in the metro area. The snow in northeastern Colorado has also led to an Interstate 76 closure.

Denver is on Crash Alert as a result of the slippery, icy and snowy roads across the city. Nancy Kuhn with the Denver Department of Infrastructure and Transportation said the plows hit the roads before the snow started falling. 

"We have our big plows out there plowing the snow and dropping de-icer as needed and we have our residential plows also doing their routes on the residential streets," said Kuhn. "Both groups of plow drivers were on duty before the snow arrived, both groups went out about 6 o'clock and they'll continue to work today."

Kuhn said this storm is different than the last one that hit the city after Christmas because that one started as rain. 

"For the last storm, we were looking at a forecast of 1-5 inches starting as rain and that's not normally a storm that we would deploy residential plows for. This time we were looking at 6-11 inches with prolonged cold temperatures afterwards and we knew that they could be helpful the next day after the snow stopped."

Interstate 76 is closed from Sterling to the Nebraska border. Highway 6 is also closed from Sterling to the Nebraska border.

Traffic in Colorado's high country is also impacted by the storm. Vehicles were moving much more slowly than normal on Interstate 70 on both sides of the Eisenhower Tunnel in Summit County and Clear Creek County.