Winter storm in Denver brings hundreds of flight cancellations | CNN

CNN
 — 

Hundreds of flights were canceled Wednesday at Denver International Airport (DIA) as a winter storm sweeps across the Rocky Mountain region, according to data from FlightAware.

According to the flight tracking site, almost 320 flights bound for or departing from DIA had been canceled as of 7:45 p.m. ET, with almost 700 flights delayed.

Almost 200 of the cancellations were Southwest Airlines flights, FlightAware indicates.

On Tuesday, more than 180 flights to or from the Denver airport were canceled.

In a statement to CNN, a DIA spokesperson said despite the cancellations, airport operations are running smoothly.

“Many airlines decide to preemptively cancel flights within a 24 hour period to maintain regular operations,” the spokesperson said.

Still, the airport advises passengers to check with specific airlines for the most up-to-date information on their flights.

As for US air travel on Thursday, just 60 flights had been preemptively canceled across the country as of 7:45 p.m. ET Wednesday.

Some 8.6 inches of snow had been recorded at DIA as of 11 a.m. MST, according to the National Weather Service office in Boulder. This is the largest January snowfall total for Denver since 1992, when 14.8 inches of snow was recorded.

Denver was under a winter storm warning until 5 p.m. MST, where snow was forecast to continue to fall through late into the afternoon.

Denver also recorded 0.43” of precipitation on Tuesday; the NWS says the average precipitation for all of January in Denver is 0.38 inches.

The weather created hazardous road conditions and closures, too.

Interstate 70 was closed from near DIA to the Kansas state line in both directions, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation.

The Colorado State Patrol tweeted from its CSP Limon account that there was a pileup on I-70 involving nine commercial vehicles near Strasburg, about 30 miles east of DIA.

CNN’s Brandon Miller, Haley Brink, Jeremy Harlan and Forrest Brown contributed to this report.