A wind-whipped winter storm slammed the Denver area earlier than anticipated and with more punch than forecasters had predicted, catching road crews off guard Monday and making for a nightmarish morning commute.

Police reported numerous weather-related accidents, including a fatality on U.S. 34 in Weld County and a crash that disabled several traffic lights in Aurora.

The storm delivered a quick and unexpected blast of snow in a short period.

"There were a few flakes at 4:30. By 5, it was snowing and by 5:30, it looked like a blizzard," said Chris Carnahan, Aurora's public works operations manager.

"Fortunately, we do have a supervisor who comes in real early. He was quickly calling everybody and saying, 'Hurry, hurry, get in your snowplows.' "

Snowplow operators expected anywhere from a light dusting to 2 inches after 7 or 8 a.m.

The state Department of Transportation expected the brunt of the storm to hit after 9 a.m.

Instead, the wintry blast started to pound the metro area about 5 a.m., dumping several inches of snow before and during the morning rush hour.

"It was terrible," said Christy Williams, 39, who left Lakewood at 7:30 a.m. and didn't get to downtown Denver for a work-related training until about 9 a.m. "I actually had to keep rerouting my way because where I live they have the big dips in the road and people were getting stuck in the dips."

Williams said she didn't watch the weather report before going to bed Sunday. But even if she had, it might not have helped.

While the cold front was expected, Jennifer Zeppelin, a meteorologist with CBS4 News, said the winds were a lot stronger than forecast.

"The jet stream that runs at about 30,000 feet just provided enough energy with the winds. And as that cold front raced off to the east of us, we got those up slope conditions," she said.

Timing is everything

Stacey Stegman, a CDOT spokeswoman, said the snowstorm was at its worst about 5:30 a.m., just as traffic started to pick up.

"The last thing that our drivers want to do is try to plow snow in the middle of rush-hour traffic," she said. "It just doesn't work."

Carnahan said a motorist slid on an icy street and hit a transformer, knocking out several traffic lights around central Aurora.

"That just had some of our streets backed up for miles," he said.

Municipalities can pick from an array of weather services, from monitoring local TV channels to contracting with private firms. Many local governments rely on more than one service.

Nobody, it appears, got it right Monday.

For the city of Lakewood, one service didn't respond at all, according to Ron Wagoner, maintenance supervisor.

The city never heard from Skyview Weather, a private service based in Castle Rock, Wagoner said. When a storm looms, a paged alert and phone calls are expected as part of Skyview's service.

"They should have paged us on this one," Wagoner said. "That's why a lot of people got caught off guard."

Wagoner added that nobody at Skyview responded to phone calls from Lakewood officials, either.

Two calls to Skyview to comment for this story were not immediately returned.

Denver's Public Works Department, which relies on three different forecasts, was expecting "some flurries" after 8 a.m., said spokeswoman Christine Downs.

"Even though the initial forecasts were wrong, we were definitely ready for it," she said.

The city had 40 of its 65 heavy-duty snowplows out by 5 a.m. The rest were out by 7:30 a.m., she said.

Stinging reality

Mike Secary, operations manager for Jefferson County's Road and Bridge Division, said they were expecting no more than 2 inches of snow but ended up getting 5 inches in some places.

When he went to work about 6 a.m., he said there was little accumulation and the snow on the roads was still slushy.

"It didn't seem that bad, but then when I went back out to check the roads, it was like, 'Holy cow!' " he said.

Pat Persichino fell asleep Sunday night blissfully expecting a picturesque winter morning - maybe a trace of snow - but surely no more than an inch.

Instead, shortly before 4 a.m. the Weld County director of public works looked out his bedroom window in Severance with a more spicy reaction.

"Oh, expletive deleted," he said, chuckling.

Across the metro area, mild forecasts bore little resemblance to reality.

In Weld County, it amounted to 3 to 4 inches "and blowing like you wouldn't believe," Persichino said.

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