Heavy snow closes schools, disrupts flights in Denver DENVER (Reuters) - A winter storm walloped eastern Colorado with its first heavy snow of the new year on Friday, closing schools, forcing flight cancellations at Denver International Airport and creating blizzard conditions on the High Plains. A foot of snow piled up in the Denver metropolitan area, with up to 2 feet reported in the foothills west of the city, said Frank Cooper, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boulder, Colorado. Cooper said a warm, moisture-laden air mass from the Gulf of Mexico collided with colder northern air over southeastern Colorado to unleash the snowstorm east of the Continental Divide. Sustained winds of 30 miles per hour on the Plains created blizzard conditions that severely reduced visibility on highways, but forecasters said the snow was expected to taper off by Friday night. Most school districts in eastern Colorado, including Denver, announced Thursday night, ahead of the storm, that they would be closed on Friday. Interstate 70 was closed to east-bound traffic from Denver to Limon, Colorado, said Mindy Crane, a spokeswoman for the state Transportation Department. The interstate also was shut westbound from the Kansas border to Limon due to blowing and drifting snow. Denver International Airport remained open, but about 600 incoming and departing flights were canceled on Friday, airport officials said in a recorded message. Editing by Steve Gorman and Paul Thomasch