Traffic-Halting I-70 Avalanche A Hint Of Increasing Danger
SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) - Video of an avalanche rumbling across Interstate 70 early Friday afternoon served to validate experts' warnings about the increased danger of high-country snowslides this weekend.
This as a new storm system arriving Sunday threatens to release additional accumulation on weakly connected layers of deepening snow.
#BREAKING Safety Closure: I-70 WB CLOSED at Frisco due to #Avalanche in the Officers Gulch area (between Copper Mtn and Frisco)
— CSP Eagle (@CSP_Eagle) February 7, 2020
Initial small slide impacting WB lanes, however, area needs to be cleared.
Avalanche experts enroute.#cotraffic
David Roth was driving westbound on I-70 just after 1 p.m. Friday when the slide billowed downhill and across the roadway. By the end of the recording, the snow cloud had reached Roth's vehicle.
Less than a year ago, Colorado travelers experienced record-setting avalanches along the same stretch of I-70, referred to as Tenmile Canyon.
The northern and central mountains of Colorado saw the greatest impact. Ski areas near the slide measured two-and-a-half feet of new snow from the most recent system.
RELATED: Extreme Colorado Avalanches From March Still Under Review
Forecasters from the Colorado Avalanche Information Center placed the avalanche danger in those areas at a Level 4 out of 5 Friday. It remains high through Saturday. Kreston Rohrig of the CAIC posted a Youtube video on Thursday, prior to the system's arrival, describing the "weak facets" of the snow layers along Vail Pass.
"Digging here was like digging in a sandbox," Rohrig said of the granular snow. "Really weak."
Five to ten more inches of snow is expected in the mountains from Sunday's incoming system.