Blizzard 1 vs. Blizzard 2

Last week's storm vs. this week's two major storms, two different personalities. The first one shut down Denver International Airport for almost two days last week. The second one hobbled the airport but never closed it. Here are the factors that made the difference:

Moisture in snow

Last week: Snow was light and dry, which allowed the wind to blow it into large drifts that were difficult to plow.

This week: Snow was much heavier and did not drift nearly as much.

Wind

Last week: Winds blew at a steady 20 to 25 mph, with stronger gusts.

This week: Winds were about 10 mph.

Snow amounts

Last week: DIA got about 20 inches.

This week: About 7 inches (as of Friday morning).

Number of hours closed

Last week: 45

This week: 0

Canceled flights

Last week: The two largest users of DIA, Frontier and United, canceled about 2,650 flights.

This week: Through 3 p.m. Friday, both airlines had canceled approximately 375 flights.

Number of stranded passengers

Last week: several thousand

This week: 600

Clearing ramp areas

Last week: The city would plow the larger ramp areas (areas between concourses where planes are pushed out from boarding gates and moved to the taxiways), while airline crews plowed the areas right around their planes. At times, airline crews were pushing snow into places that had already been cleared by the airport.

This week: The city added 37 trucks, mostly to remove snow from the ramps. Also, airline and city crews kept in closer contact.

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