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

http://cellar.org/2006/cosnow.jpg

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.

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.

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):
http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/5766/goldentp5.jpg

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:
http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/2598/denverlu0.jpg

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: