The fierce winter weather, part of which was expected to classify as a “bomb cyclone,” was expected to pummel parts of Colorado and rapidly intensify throughout the day, the National Weather Service said.
Heavy rains turning to snow, blizzard conditions and high winds will also affect areas of the country from the Central Rockies across the Plains, and from the Mississippi Valley into the Upper Great Lakes, including Wyoming, Nebraska and South Dakota.
In Colorado, computer simulations showed a record change in pressure that suggested conditions for the “bomb cyclone,” also known as a winter hurricane.
A storm may become a “bomb” depending on how fast the atmospheric pressure falls; drops in atmospheric pressure are a characteristic of all storms. Barometric pressure must drop by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours for a storm to be called a bomb cyclone.
Travel plans were expected to be disrupted in Colorado. The visibility will be near zero, the National Weather Service said, with wind gusts of up to 80 mph. Up to 1 foot of snow was forecast on the plains east of the city of Greeley and stretching south to Denver International Airport.
The airport said it was bracing for several inches of snow and strong winds. Airlines including Southwest, Frontier and United have canceled flights, and more cancellations and delays were possible, it said in a statement on Twitter.
“These conditions will spread eastward across the plains this afternoon,” the National Weather Service said.
“Travelers across the Colorado mountains and eastern plains should consider canceling travel plans today, as conditions will deteriorate quickly during the late morning or early afternoon,” it added.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.