Late morning snowfall leads to tricky commute

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- In typical Colorado fashion, what was a warm, sunny, 70-degree day on Monday quickly turned into a cold, wet and snowy day Tuesday. As the morning progressed conditions only continued to get worse as big, wet flakes started to cover the ground.

We saw multiple slide-offs and even spoke to a State Trooper who said by 8:30 a.m. he had already been to two separate accidents. Trooper Gary Schaaf said, “My Corporal who is just across the street in the park and ride has been on two also and that’s just a mile from where we are at right here.”

When speaking with commuters some said they still weren’t used to these types of conditions.

Marci Erdmann said, “I’m from Moore, Oklahoma and I just moved here and it hasn’t stopped snowing since I’ve been here.” While Carrie Mertens added “I’m from Wisconsin and I’m used to it just being cold for several months and then warm for several months. Not warm and then cold and then warm and then cold.”

But with the nice weather yesterday, CDOT was able to pretreat the roads. On top of that, multiple plows were out trying to keep the interstate as clear as possible. Trooper Schaaf said it’s these types of days that can really catch drivers off guard.

“Don’t get deceived by being on a dry part of a roadway and then especially when you are up here on Monument Hill because it’s almost 3,000 feet higher than where Colorado Springs is, so the temps are a lot lower and it ices over really fast.”