All flights at Denver International Airport are grounded because of high winds, causing nearly 700 flight delays Thursday as thunderstorms and hail hit Colorado’s Eastern Plains.

Federal Aviation Administration officials ordered the DIA ground stop at 5 p.m. and extended it twice because of ongoing high winds, according to the alert. The ground stop is now set to expire at 8 p.m.

Wind gusts at the airport hit 45 mph at 5:18 p.m. and blowing dust is limiting visibility, according to the National Weather Service., and was still gusting at 29 mph just before 7 p.m.

The group behind an upcoming rebate program is hoping to get more Coloradans to make the switch to heat pumps for their heating and cooling needs. 

Power Ahead Colorado, administered by the Denver Regional Council of Governments, says applications for the new rebates will open this summer. However, people are already taking advantage of incentives. 

“I am so ready for the summer,” said Denver homeowner Eric Gehringer, who came home from work as his heat pump was being installed, and he’s pretty excited about it.

“We’re going to be in the house, just chillin’, like, ‘Oh man, is it warm outside? I don’t even know,’” he joked.

Gehringer is upgrading from a swamp cooler and chose a heat pump over a traditional heating and cooling system. 

“With the rebates that are happening right now, it just made financial sense as well,” he said.

Several rebates can be stacked for maximum savings, including a state rebate from Xcel Energy.

“The average size of those rebates has been anywhere from $6,000 to $12,000, depending on the size of the heat pump,” said Trevor Seeyle, the president and CEO of Independent Power, a Boulder-based company that installs heat pumps. 

Power Ahead Colorado will also be launching a $1,500 rebate program this summer.

“Our typical heat pump installation is probably anywhere from $15,000 to $25,000, and on average, those stacked heat pump rebates are probably about $10,000, and so it’s a significant portion of the installation cost,” Seeyle added.

Heat pumps are also a more energy-efficient option than traditional heating and cooling, and more Coloradans are making the switch. 

Independent Power says they install around seven to eight per week.

Heat pumps work by pulling heat from the outside air when it’s cold, and cold from the air when it’s hot outside. The unit then disperses it within the home.

And although heat pump technology has improved to handle sub-zero temperatures in the colder months, there’s also an option to install a furnace along with it.

“That’s the backup that will typically only be running when it’s very, very cold outside,” Seeyle explained.

Heat pumps could be the long-term future of heating and cooling, with people like Gehringer eager to go all in. 

“And seeing that the swamp cooler is gone is fabulous,” Gehringer added.

DENVER (AP) — The Colorado Supreme Court has ordered Colorado’s largest provider of gender-affirming care for young people to resume medical treatments like puberty blockers and hormone therapy despite threats that providing the care could lead to losing federal funding.

Children’s Hospital Colorado suspended medical treatments for transgender patients under 18 in January after it said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services opened an investigation into its treatments following a series of clashes between President Donald Trump’s administration and advocates over transgender health care for children.

WATCH: Trump administration seeks to cut off access to transgender health care for U.S. children

The hospital said in a statement that it is reviewing Monday’s court ruling and considering its next steps. It previously said it would continue to provide mental health treatment for minors and also medical treatment for patients aged 18 to 21.

Four transgender girls, ranging from age 10 to 17, sued the hospital, through their parents, alleging that the hospital was violating the state’s antidiscrimination law by refusing to provide them treatment both because of their gender identity and their disability, gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria is the distress caused when someone’s gender expression doesn’t match their sex assigned at birth.

The girls said they feared not being able to get medication and monitoring to prevent them from undergoing puberty and developing male traits. And they cited mental health fallout, including depression and suicidal ideation.

The court sided with the girls in a 5-2 ruling, finding that the decision to shutter the services for minors violated a state antidiscrimination law. In the majority opinion, Justice William Wood III said, “We conclude that the actual immediate and irreparable harm to petitioners outweighs the speculative harm CHC may face if the federal government further acts against it.”

In a dissent, Justice Brian Boatright said the hospital didn’t make its decision to stop the case because of the gender identity of the patients. Rather, he wrote, “It was a decision driven by the direct threat to the viability of the entire hospital.”

A Kansas judge also sided with transgender minors in a ruling last week.

The Colorado hospital’s TRUE Center, which focuses on gender-affirming care, is one of the largest programs in the country and the only comprehensive care center in the Rocky Mountain region, according to the lawsuit.

Children’s Hospital Colorado said the HHS opened the investigation of the hospital after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. issued a declaration that called treatments like puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries unsafe and ineffective for children and adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria, or the distress when someone’s gender expression doesn’t match their sex assigned at birth.

An Oregon-based federal judge ruled in March for Colorado and 20 other states that Kennedy’s declaration went too far.

Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, New Jersey.