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Aspen still waiting for snowstorm to deliver

Aspen Times staff report
Aspen, CO Colorado

ASPEN – Though snow fell off and on Wednesday in Aspen, some Aspenites were muttering “some storm” in response to the dusting that had accumulated in town by mid-afternoon.

Still, forecasters were predicting up to a foot or two of snow in the mountains before it’s all over and the Aspen Skiing Co. reported up to 5 inches of new snow on local slopes by mid-morning. The Skico fired off a photo of knee-deep snow at the top of Snowmass.

The Colorado Department of Transportation was bracing for the worst, and said it would keep Highway 82 over Independence Pass closed until Thursday morning before deciding whether or not to reopen it. The pass, southeast of Aspen, was closed Tuesday afternoon in advance of the approaching storm.



If the pass does reopen, it won’t be for long. It’s scheduled closing is Friday, Nov. 6 at 2 p.m. (not Nov. 7 as CDOT stated Tuesday).

Snow in Denver and in the mountains along the Interstate 70 corridor forced Denver band Paper Bird to cancel its Wednesday night performance at Belly Up Aspen, but the nightclub planned to show Game 1 of the World Series on its big screen.




Aspen remains under a winter storm warning until Thursday at 6 p.m., and the National Weather Service was predicting accumulations of 1 to 2 feet for the central mountains of Colorado.

In Aspen, the weather service forecast called for 2 to 4 inches on Wednesday afternoon and 3 to 5 inches Wednesday night. Another 3 to 5 inches were expected Thursday and snow showers remained in the forecast through Friday night. Highs of 15 to 25 are expected Thursday, dipping to zero to 10 above Thursday night.

In the Denver area, some school districts pre-emptively canceled classes Wednesday and college campuses closed early in the afternoon. Accidents forced the temporarily closure of Interstate 70 at Floyd Hill in the morning, denverpost.com reported.

Some areas of the foothills were expected to see 3 feet of snow from the storm.

The storm was blamed for dozens of accidents in Wyoming, where the state Department of Transportation closed Interstate 80 between Cheyenne and Laramie early Wednesday.