December 28, 2006: Denver International Airport before and after snowstorm

Axlrosen suggests this Flickr image created by Flickr user mo.murrey, which was also Boing Boing'd. The "before" shot comes from Google Earth. mo.murrey must have realized that this amazing shot, the "after" shot, could be compared to a "before" shot by looking at it from the right angle.

This was three days ago, and today Colorado is bracing itself for round two... another big storm coming through.

I like how the snow in the second picture really gives a depth to the land. For instance, look at the runway (or taxiway) to the left going off into the distance. You can tell that they really had to haul in a lot of dirt to build up that level runway in an area where there are some small valleys. That runway is under construction in the first Google Earth image.

I'm not sure about the 90 degree comment. The image shown here is oriented the same as the linked flickr shot....the "before" picture is different because the airport and the runways were not completed at the time the photo was taken...it was during construction.

natsdadbentley wrote:

it was during construction.

yeah, I was wondering where the 'white tent' things were that cover the terminal.

and welcome to The Cellar!

I'm amazed there is no activity. Most airports start the snow removal machinery in motion as soon as the runways are covered and continue throughout the storm until everything is operational. :eyebrow:

Aren't the black areas plowed? If so, that's a good bit of it..

Geez Denver looks pretty brown in the first shot. Didn't realise it was in a desert??

I was kinda wondering the same thing. Is it surrounded by fields? Or government "no-man's land?"

It is beautiful, though. Glatt echoed my first thought. The snow really makes it look topographical. Very cool.

jinx wrote:

Aren't the black areas plowed? If so, that's a good bit of it..

The access roads are cleared but they've just started on the runways. Guess that's so the people can get there to wait around. ;)

I was told that the Denver Airport was 50sq miles.. Sheesh!

On the radio this morning, (NPR) there was a very short story that hinted there was a bunch of mismanagement at the airport during this storm. There was confusion between the airport management and the airlines about whose job it was to plow the runways. So the runways weren't plowed for a while. Now, with the second storm coming, they are apparently talking to one another and figuring out who is responsible for what.

Ah, thanks glatt. Dat 'splain it. :D

DIA has been a nightmare with the storms. I knew a lot of people trying to fly and having to wait for an available seat on another flight because theirs were cancelled. When this happened last week, DIA was actually completely shut down for a while...people were camped out there, some for several nights. There were a lot of pissed off travelers.

Denver Post Article about DIA in yesterday's/today's storm

As for Denver being brown, one thing to keep in mind is that DIA is actually on the Eastern outskirts of Denver.

Here are some Google Earth screenshots for reference (notice these were captured pre-snow. Everything does look brown, here, too, but I think some of that is the way Google Earth captures some of its land photos.)

My neck of the woods (or mountains):


DIA is out on the right side of this photo, where Denver is toward the middle. For reference, I included a tag for Golden, where you can see the mountains up next to it:


edit: I hope it was okay to post images in an already started IOTD thread. If not, I am sorry. Let me know.

Gee, you'd think it would be in the best interests of both parties to get it cleared, but no, they are probably busy talking about who is going to pay.

Meanwhile, it is costing both of them butt loads.

Sheesh.

And screwing up the whole country. There is something like 6,000 commercial aircraft making 30,000 domestic flights every day. It's all interdependant and one airport closing impacts the big jigsaw puzzle.
Also, at the end of the day, all the planes have to be where they're suppose to be or it impacts the next day too.:juggle:

Denver is a great place and I don't mind having layovers there... but I've always wondered if snowstorms ever factored into their decision to make Denver a major airport.

No, only money is factored....and there is lots of it in Denver. You can't have an NFL team without an airport. :D

Y'know, you'd think the aliens that have the huge secret base under DIA and are kidnapping thousands of travelers each year could return the favor and clear the runways for us......

(On the other hand, I can see why they're kidnapping people if they're stuck at the airport and the food there is all they can get ahold of....)

I thought the Denver airport was great, but I was there right before the first storm last week. Probably not so great, filled with lots of tired, annoyed people.

Having lived through both storms AND getting grandma in and out of DIA last week, here's the deal:

The Airport was _paralized_. It wasn't a matter of who plowed what. The runways were pretty well cleared, but the areas near the concourse weren't, so there was nowhere for the planes to go, and no way to get the luggage off them.

Geographically speaking, people tend to forget that the eastern part of Colorado IS an arid, near desert, climate. Not as bad as Vegas, but things get kinda dry, and there isn't a lot of windbreaks.

Bringing me to the next: While the volume of snow was great, it was also blowing. It's not the 28-32 inches you get falling straight down, it's what happens when the wind decides where to stack it up.



Our four foot fence in the back yard had, maybe, a foot of clearance, and other parts of the yard were _bare_. The picture above, the snow is above the kid's heads, but if you look across the street, there's not a whole lotta snow in the other driveway.

Wow, sniglet. Is that nasty point sticking out of the snow, part of your fence? :thepain:

xoxoxoBruce;303856 wrote:

Wow, sniglet. Is that nasty point sticking out of the snow, part of your fence? :thepain:

It's a magnet for attracting kids.

It's actually a post for a sign. It usually sits WAY back from where anyone's eyes would be. the fence mentioned in the post is in the BACK yard.