After lulling Coloradans into visions of an early spring, the month of March worked hard Thursday to live up to its reputation as the state’s snowiest, dumping a foot and more of snow in the foothills and across metro Denver and closing schools, local government offices, businesses and roads.
Warmer, sunnier weather at the start of the week slid into cooler, stormier conditions. Starting Wednesday evening, rain and winds hit the mountains, turning into wet, heavy snow that then rolled across the Denver area. More than 2 feet of snow fell at higher elevations, reaching 36 inches in Conifer, nearly 24 inches in Golden and 9 inches in Denver.
Although the snow lightened throughout the day in many places, forecasters and state highway officials said the storm wasn’t over. National Weather Service meteorologist Russell Danielson in Boulder said 4 to 8 more inches could fall by Friday morning and the slightly above-freezing temperatures will drop, transforming slushy roads to icy ones.
The brunt of the storm was expected to ease by morning, the weather service said.
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School districts throughout metro Denver and northern Colorado canceled classes Thursday and some, including Denver Public Schools and the Douglas County School District, also canceled Friday classes.
Government offices from Boulder to Colorado Springs were closed due to snow. The Colorado General Assembly took a snow day, too.
In some cases, people who showed up to work got to leave early. Michelle Swaisgood was waiting outside her workplace, Athletic Lettering in Arvada, for her husband to pick her up. The business, which customizes letter jackets and other sports team apparel, closed before noon because of a power outage.
Swaisgood thought she would spend the rest of the snowy, work-free afternoon watching movies. “We already have our shoveling done because we are early rising people.”
The storm caused hundreds of scattered power outages across metro Denver as of Thursday evening, affecting a total of close to 82,000 customers stretching from Boulder to Castle Rock and from Aurora to Clear Creek County near Georgetown. Xcel Energy, the state’s largest electric utility, said nearly 345 crew members were working to restore power.
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Operations were normal at Denver International Airport, where only about an inch had fallen by Thursday afternoon. However, more than 800 flights were canceled and another 245 were delayed, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. Airport spokeswoman Stephanie Figueroa said nearly all the cancellations were made preemptively Wednesday evening.
Travel by ground remained hazardous in spots throughout Thursday. The Colorado Department of Transportation issued a travel alert around 12:35 p.m., asking travelers to be prepared for highway closures and extended delays and to have food, water, blankets and other items in their vehicles.
Jereme Koehler works to clear the walkways in front of his home early in the morning before starting work as a major snowstorm dumps snow in Lakewood on March 14, 2024. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
Interstate 70 was closed between Denver and Silverthorne for part of Thursday. It was reopened to passenger vehicles in the afternoon but the eastbound lanes were closed again by evening after multiple accidents and slide-offs. The highway was to remain closed to commercial vehicles between Eagle/Vail and Morrison until noon Friday, CDOT said.
Interstate 25 over Monument Hill will likely be closed due to safety concerns through Thursday evening, according to CDOT.
A pedestrian makes their way across West Colfax Ave. as a major snowstorm dumps snow in Lakewood on March 14, 2024. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
Despite city officials’ repeated urgings in the leadup to the storm to stay off the roads, spots were at a premium Thursday afternoon in the upper parking lot at Ruby Hill Park in west Denver. By 2 p.m., upwards of 100 people, ranging from young children towing sleds to 20-somethings strapping on ski and snowboarding boots, were swarming the spot known for its sledding hill and Ruby Hill Rail Yard skiing and snowboarding areas.
“When I-70 is closed there are only so many places you can go,” said Lane Parker as she stood at the top of the sledding hill alongside her sister-in-law Autumn Gardner.
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While activity was humming at Ruby Hill, traffic was light on South Broadway in Denver’s Baker neighborhood. Several businesses along the usually busy thoroughfare had “Closed” signs on their doors.
Benicio Barela, 6, goes sledding at Ruby Hill Park in Denver on Thursday, March 14, 2024. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
But coffee shops and restaurants on Broadway still attracted clientele. Ten minutes after opening, Postino Broadway had already seated two tables. At Snooze, a breakfast and brunch restaurant, eight tables were occupied and there was a slight wait at the host stand.
Those looking to enjoy the snow on the slopes had fewer choices Thursday. Eldora, Loveland, Arapahoe Basin and Echo Mountain ski areas announced closures for the day. Eldora reported 30 inches of snow overnight and snow slides on its access road, according to the ski area’s website.
People were advised to scratch any plans for camping Friday in Golden Gate Canyon State Park. Colorado Parks and Wildlife said on the social media platform X that the area west of Golden had gotten 36 inches of snow by Thursday morning.
“We won’t be dug out by tomorrow,” the CPW post said.
The arts also got snowed out. The Denver Art Museum was closed Thursday. All shows at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts were canceled. Cirque du Soleil’s show “Crystal” at Ball Arena was called off Thursday.
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A worker with a snow shovel negotiates heavy, wet snow in the University Hills King Soopers parking lot in Denver on Thursday, March 14, 2024. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
A low-pressure system that stalled out unleashed the snow along the Front Range. March is historically Colorado’s snowiest month and it’s not unusual for the Denver area to be battered by big snow storms then. An average of 11.5 inches of snow falls in Denver in March, making up about 20% of the city’s average yearly cumulative snow total.
This week’s storm, though, stands out, Paul Schlatter, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boulder, said.
“Normally the storm system will slowly move across the Colorado-New Mexico border and just kind of meander its way eastward there,” Schlatter said. “This one is actually diving straight south over Arizona.”
And a “really strong easterly upslope flow” is pulling moisture in from Iowa and Nebraska, he added. “Once the easterly flow gets to the mountains, the eastern slopes get dumped on.”
March snow storms are typically wet, but this one is packed with moisture, Schlatter said. When the numbers from an unusually moist snow in early February are added, he expects this to be the area’s second-wettest start of the year.
Because of the heavy, wet snow, many homeowners tried to get a jump on the accumulation by getting out to shovel for the first time early Thursday morning.
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In the Washington Park neighborhood, Ian Peterson was out and busy clearing the sidewalks around the block at Pearl Street and Fourth Avenue.
“I have this thing, so It’s easy,” Peterson said, pointing to his snow blower. Many residents who waited longer didn’t have the luxury of using snowblowers. The snow was too heavy by then.
Down the street from Peterson, Jenn Prileszky was watching as her three children were helping a neighbor build a snow fort. She said her kids heard the snow blower going and wanted to get outside.
“This is our first winter in Colorado so the snow is still kind of a novelty,” said Prileszky, whose family recently moved from Georgia.
Denver Post reporters Joe Rubino, Noelle Phillips, Katie Langford, Jacob Factor, Elizabeth Hernandez, John Wenzel, John Meyer and Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton contributed to this report.
A 24-year-old Denver rideshare driver charged with unlawful sexual contact may have other victims, Denver police said in a news release Thursday.
Nesrelah Bedru Kemal was arrested March 11 and charged with two counts of sexual contact – no consent and one count of false imprisonment, according to the Denver Police Department.
The alleged incidents happened while Kemal was working as a rideshare driver, said Denver District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Matt Jablow.
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Investigators later learned there may have been other incidents involving Kemal when he was working as a rideshare driver, department officials said Thursday.
Anyone who may have been a victim can contact the Denver Police Sex Crimes Unit at 720-913-6040.
Kemal was released on a $1,500 bail.
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Colorado’s capital city has been serving not only as innkeeper for an unprecedented, new wave of illegal immigrants — but also as their travel agent. Among the many services the administration of Denver Mayor Mike Johnston extends to them — all on the taxpayers’ tab — are tickets to the immigrants’ next intended destination.
The complimentary travel fare no doubt is aimed, at least in part, at defusing public pushback at the other support — room, board, medical care at Denver Health and so forth — the administration has been doling out. It’s as if to say, nervously, “Don’t worry; they won’t be staying!” though many probably will.
But instead of serving as a sop to an overburdened public, the free tickets are really another slap in the face. It’s another perk taxpayers have to cover for “newcomers,” as they are now called, but aren’t eligible to use themselves.
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Policies adopted by Denver City Hall as well as by Colorado’s government have turned our entire state into a sanctuary, and a beacon, for those who are illegally in the U.S. And the public’s ire is inevitable. To date, the city has received 42,323 immigrants at a cost of more than $71 million, some of which has dinged taxpayers through cutbacks in city services.
The portion of that ad hoc budget that is paying for one-way travel to other points on the map not only represents another publicly funded expense — but also the policy’s rank hypocrisy.
The city might as well declare, “Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses — but only until we can palm them off on someone else.” They are being shipped to places that didn’t ask for them and — unlike Denver and Colorado — weren’t foolish enough to advertise themselves as sanctuaries for illegal immigration in the first place.
Elected leaders in such destinations are now justifiably upset, as a report in The Gazette reminded us this week. And it is reflecting poorly not only on Denver and its elected leadership but also on all of Colorado.
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Utah’s Republican Gov. Spencer Cox tore into Johnston on social media the other day, saying it is “completely unacceptable” to bus immigrants — who crossed the U.S. border illegally and ended up in Denver — to Colorado’s neighbors.
“We recently learned that the Democrat mayor of Denver has been sending illegal immigrants to Utah without proper notification or approval,” Cox wrote Friday on X, the former Twitter. “This is completely unacceptable and follows on the failed catch-and-release policy of the Biden administration.”
Denver officials insist the policy has been ongoing and is hardly a secret, but the Utahans aren’t in the mood for excuses.
“Denver did not consult with us prior to instigating this practice,” Cox’s office stated in an email to The Gazette’s news staff. Salt Lake City and the state of Utah are unable to provide services to arriving immigrants, Cox’s office added.
One thing both states’ political leaders seem to agree on is the problem is the fault of our federal government — for failing to secure the nation’s borders — and ultimately will have to be resolved in the nation’s capital.
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But Denver’s mayor as well as the state Legislature have significantly compounded Colorado’s woes. State lawmakers in 2019 enacted a law prohibiting local governments from cooperating with the federal government in immigration enforcement and prohibiting the sharing of judicial information with federal officials.
Last year, the Legislature passed a law barring local government involvement in immigration detention. Denver, meanwhile, is widely known for offering shelter, food and transportation of immigrants here illegally to their final destination.
Is it any surprise when Utah balks at Colorado’s attempts to share pain of its own making?
For our next preview of potential first-round Denver Nuggets targets in the NBA Draft, we’ll check out Kansas forward Kevin McCullar Jr. If you’re looking for another Christian Braun type player then look no further than McCullar, who had two years at Kansas under coach Bill Self to turn himself into another iteration of a two-way wing that Self loves to have. Is Denver looking for one of those? Don’t the Nuggets have enough defensive guys who are iffy shooters? That definitely depends on what the trade situations and free agency look like for the Nuggets, and McCullar is one option for going back to the well that both GM Calvin Booth and Coach Michael Malone like to dip into.
Kevin McCullar Jr., Forward, Kansas
Vitals
Height (w/o shoes): 6 feet, 5.25 inches
Weight: 206 pounds
Wingspan: 6 feet, 9 inches
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Age: 23 (03/15/2021)
McCullar comes in right between Christian Braun (6′ 5.5″ with a 6′ 6.5″ wingspan) and Peyton Watson (6′ 6.75″ with a 7′ 0.50″ wingspan) on the “rangy wing defender” spectrum. He’s got longer arms than Braun but not the pterodactyl wingspan that Watson possesses, while having a strong frame to defend the grown men he’ll see in the Association. He doesn’t have the extra muscle of a Wilson Chandler to see heavy duty at the 4, but as a 2/3 swingman more like Braun there’s a lot to like.
College Statistics
2023/2024 Season Stats
MPG
PPG
RPG
APG
SPG
FG%
3PT%
FT%
BPM
34.2
18.3
6.0
4.1
1.5
45.4%
33.3%
80.5%
7.4
Highlights
Strengths
Offensive Acumen
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McCullar isn’t a sniper – that’s the one thing he’s still working on. But he’s a great cutter and slasher either down the paint or the baseline, and a good free throw shooter (81% this season) who was willing to take three pointers in the flow of the offense even if he wasn’t great at making them just yet (33% on 4.5 attempts per game). He can be a passing hub – his 4 assists a game this year were off of DHOs, pick-and-rolls, pocket passes, everything you would think a point guard would be doing. His ball-handling both in transition and in traffic is pretty advanced. He’s got the Andre Iguodala Starter Pack as far as offense, and while “spot-up shooter” is not his claim to fame yet, he’s got some time to work on it and a shooting stroke that shows he should improve to be a league-average capable shooter. He knows his strengths on offense involve going to the rack, though, and he is fearless about doing just that.
Defensive versatility
McCullar can legitimately defend multiple positions as a strong wing with fast feet and hands. He can crowd guards and take away their ability to turn the corner, or body up a forward to prevent an easy turn to the bucket. He has good hands for both steals and boards, and stays attached through screens. He was a Naismith DPOY semi-finalist two years running, and can make life very difficult for even very good opposing wings. If Dalton Knecht, almost certainly top-10 pick this year, is a no-doubt NBA-level player then the guy who made him look like a high schooler when they played this year should be too.
Improvement Areas
Injury concerns
McCullar wasn’t able to participate in the NBA combine for the same reason his season ended early: the bone bruise in his left knee. It’s the same injury that took a chunk of Julian Strawther’s season for the Nuggets. There has been a lot of talk about whether this means he’s soft because he missed the NCAA tournament, whether he’s a bad teammate – a lot of smoke that may be taking his draft stock down. Even more serious smoke got MPJ to fall to Denver, so if this gets McCullar out of the range of the bad teams and onto a squad that can use his playstyle, it may still work out in his favor (even while it costs him money in the short-term). This is a strange one for me because until this year I can’t remember anyone questioning his heart or integrity, and missing the combine in May should be extra weight on the side of serious injury rather than a lack of desire to gut it out. That said, any injury that takes you out for several months has to be a concern.
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Deep Shooting
McCullar can handle scoring around the basket just fine. As a 23 year old who shot 30.1% from deep for his career, though, there are concerns about whether he’ll ever be league-average from behind the arc. His free throw percentage is perfectly reasonable at 75.6% for his career and 80.5% this year, and usually players with a decent free throw shot can be coached into gains from deep. To go back to the Wilson Chandler well, he shot 30.3% from deep in his two years at DePaul, while shooting 65.9% from the line. In the NBA, Ill Will shot 34.1% from 3 and 77% from the free throw line. Is 34% enough for McCuller to make an impact? League-average is around 36% right now – can he get to that? He showed this year for Kansas that he was willing to take the necessary threes for them to keep the floor spaced, and that’s all Denver would be asking him to do – that, and make open ones if he’s left alone. With Denver’s shooting woes on the bench, it’s hard to see another wing defender join the squad who cannot take and make those.
Mock Outcome (Nuggets draft 28th)
The Athletic: 51st
The Ringer: 46th
Yahoo! Sports: 37th
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Verdict
McCullar has so many things going for him to be an effective NBA player that seeing him out of the first round in mocks makes me doubt my eyes. There are not thirty better pros in this draft than McCullar. He compares himself to Jalen Williams from the Thunder, and Jaime Jaquez Jr, the breakout forward last season. Some players have very optimistic self-comps, but in this case it’s easy to see how McCullar views himself in that vein with his on-ball skills complemented by his scoring burst and finishing touch and backed up by his plus defense.
His age is working against him. Not being able to roll these 19 and 20 year olds in workouts isn’t doing him any favors. But if you asked me if I would accept a Will Barton swingman who had an extra 25 pounds of muscle and lived and breathed defense I would say yes, absolutely. How much more could I possibly ask for? But the problem for him specifically in Denver is that they have 2 guys on the bench in Braun and Watson who are already filling the wing defender role and have shooting questions. From a Best Player Available standpoint though, if McCullar is there and some interior options are not, turning down good players because you don’t currently have a rotation spot for them is a good way to mess up a draft pick. Trades and injuries happen all the time. McCullar’s biggest fit problem honestly would be picking a new number – sorry Kevin, but 15 is already taken.
