Midwest Gets White And Stormy Christmas

(AP) — A winter storm delivered a White Christmas to parts of the Midwest, causing some traffic accidents and flight delays but no major problems with fewer travelers taking to the roads and sky on Tuesday.

Denver saw up to 7 inches of snow, resulting in a handful of flight delays. United Airlines canceled about 50 flights in Denver and some in Chicago to catch up from delays caused by an earlier Midwest storm.

Since Tuesday is a light travel day, United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said the airline was using it to move planes and crews to the airports where they need to be to carry holiday travelers home. She says flights weren’t crowded so passengers on flights canceled Tuesday have been moved to others.

Besides Colorado, snow fell in parts of Wyoming, Minnesota and the Nebraska Panhandle, sometimes making travel difficult. A semi trailer slid off Interstate 80 in Wyoming and overturned near Chappell, and numerous other vehicles went into ditches on the interstate and other highways, Cheyenne County Sheriff’s Deputy Fred Wiedeburg said. No injuries were reported.

In Nebraska, the most snow reported was 8 inches, five miles north of Harrisburg in Banner County. Wind gusts of 30-40 mph caused snow drifts of 3 feet or higher, meteorologist Mike Sowko of the National Weather Service office in Cheyenne, Wyo.

By Tuesday afternoon the skies had cleared and winds diminished.