Snowpacked, icy, slushy roads slow Denver's morning commute

 
A winter storm hitting the Denver metro area is making for a difficult commute this morning, as roads begin to become more snowpacked.
The overnight storm has been dumping hard and fast southeast of Denver, including the Elizabeth area, which has about 11 inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service.
Winds whipping the snow has been causing visibility and drifting problems, especially on the Eastern Plains and including the I-70 corridor east of Denver.
In Denver, snow totals have been less drastic, about 6 inches earlier this morning, but the snow continues.
Roads in and around Denver are a mixed bag, with snowpacked, icy and slushy conditions.
Snowpack has caused rutting conditions
on some roadways, but most roads in the metro area are passable.
"We're doing pretty well, actually, as well as can be expected," said Ann Williams, a spokeswoman for Denver Public Works.
Williams said all 68 Denver Public Works snowplows were deployed last night and will continue to circulate as they try to clear the roads.
"Definitely go slow, and be aware that there's going to be limited visibility, and give our plows room," Williams said.
In Greeley, 5,000 Xcel Energy customers are without power this morning, as the snow storm snapped tree limbs that were still leafed out, and the limbs took out powerlines, said Gabriel Romero, a utility spokesman.
There was an earlier power outage in Fort Collins, but service there has been restored.
Xcel has 22 line crews and 12 tree crews working in Greeley to restore the outages.
The Douglas County School District and the Weld School District Re-8 are among the schools that have closed today because of the storm.
At DIA, "all airport operations are normal," and there are no significant flight delays or cancellations, airport officials said in a media release.
Travelers are encouraged to check their flight status online, before heading out to the airport, at www.flydenver.com.
Elsewhere, I-25 north of Wellington has been closed to the Colorado border by blizzard conditions, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation. Loveland Pass is also closed this morning, as is U.S. Highway 85 from Ault to the Wyoming border.
Wind gusts have been blowing snow, and crews are using more deicer to clear the roads than initially expected.
Crews made great progress overnight clearing the roads, but Williams said as traffic volume increases, the snowplows will be stuck in traffic as well, slowing their ability to clear the roadways.
Williams said remember to treat any traffic signal outage as a four-way stop.
A winter storm warning is in effect in Denver until noon today, with snow and blowing snow expected to continue this morning, according to the National Weather Service.
About 2 to 5 inches of additional accumulation is expected in the Denver metro area.
The weather service says to expect the highs to top out today in the lower to mid 30s, with winds out of the north at 10 to 20 mph and gusts of up to 30 mph.