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Mother Nature sends out 2018 with a blast of winter weather

Posted at 6:57 PM, Dec 31, 2018
and last updated 2018-12-31 21:12:44-05

MONUMENT – 2018 is leaving drivers in Colorado with a little something to remember it by. Blowing snow and freezing temperatures prompted the Colorado Department of Transportation to issue a winter weather advisory for all vehicles using Interstate 25 from Monument Hill south all the way to the New Mexico border until Tuesday morning.

“It’s been pretty hectic,” said truck driver Jareth Hart. “I was coming out of New Mexico into Colorado over Raton Pass is when all the snow started and it’s just been hammering ever since.”

Hart has a delivery to make in Denver by Wednesday. With the conditions getting worse, he planned to stay at the Pilot truck stop on Baptist Road to wait out the storm.

“It’s been scary,” added driver Kathleen Dolan. She stopped for fuel before finishing a delivery in Colorado Springs. Dolan urged drivers to be more careful when passing the big trucks.

“It takes half a football field length, especially when we have a load, for us to stop and you have a lot of drivers who cut right in front of you,” she said.

The snow isn’t all bad news. For landscaper and retired fireman John Psensky, it’s a chance to pick up a little business.

“I’ve got about 60 contracts, some of them commercial, and they’re open today so you need to at least do sidewalks, what you can,” Psensky said. With the holiday on Tuesday, he expects the parking lots he services to have fewer cars making it easier to clear out the snow.

C-DOT is also requiring drivers to use chains over the high mountain passes going west into Ski Country. Passenger vehicles that do not have 4 wheel drive or all wheel drive must also chain up when driving west of Denver toward Idaho Springs on I-70, on State Highway 9 over Hoosier Pass toward Breckenridge, on US Highway 285 over Kenosha Pass and between Pine Junction and Morrison, and along US Highway 550 over Red Mountain Pass.

Check https://wwww.cotrip.org for the latest road closures and traffic advisories.