The hail that pelted metro Denver on Thursday night was so heavy that state transportation officials had to deploy a snowplow to clear Interstate 225.
“It is not common for us to plow hail,” Colorado Department of Transportation shift lead Tanya Bowen said Friday morning, confirming that a plow worked I-225 as the storm raged until 9:39 p.m.
“It was very bad at certain points,” she said.
Some of the big orange trucks in CDOT’s fleet have snowplows attached through the summer. They’ve been helping clear snow from mountain passes. Independence Pass between Twin Lakes and Aspen, where the summit elevation is 12,095 feet above sea level, now is clear with no travel restrictions, Bowen said, and among other high country routes only Kebler Pass west of Crested Butte, elevation 10,007 feet, remained closed due to snow.
