Snowstorm In DEN; Tornados Near DFW

A slow-moving band of winter storms essentially stalled over the central US, dumping even more snow in the Denver area and, yes, causing even more cancelled flights at Denver International Airport.

The folks at FlightStats.com tell ANN that by noon Friday, only 111 out of 400 scheduled flights had departed the airport -- and of those, only 19 percent left within 15 minutes of schedule.

Several airlines, still stinging from the Christmas snowstorm that closed DEN for three days just one week ago, started cancelling flights late Thursday. Over 140 departing flights were cancelled Friday in Denver -- as well as 101 arriving flights.

The storm also caused problems down the I-25 corridor, with New Mexico snows forcing a ground stop Friday morning at the Albuquerque International Sunport. Nearly all inbound and outbound flights have been cancelled, including all Southwest Airlines flights.

The wrath of Mother Nature certainly wasn't limited to Denver and New Mexico.

The leading edge of this storm caused torrential rains in Phoenix Thursday, causing delays throughout the country; the same storm track caused most of Texas to be covered in severe weather Friday. Several tornado warnings south of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex caused delays of over two hours at DFW International, and did cause some cancellations.

Snow and rain also extended across most of the central US, with Omaha, Minneapolis, and Chicago expected to see rain and/or snow showers through the weekend.

In short, it's a mess out there... all the better to sit back, relax with a cup of hot chocolate perhaps, and wait out what's shaping up to be a truly lousy end to 2006, weather-wise.

FMI: www.flightstats.com