Hundreds of flights were delayed or canceled at Denver International Airport on Friday afternoon as severe thunderstorms brought the threat of large hail, tornadoes and high winds to the Front Range and Eastern Plains.

There were 626 flight delays and 18 canceled flights at DIA as of 2:45 p.m., according to the flight tracking website FlightAware .

Flights are delayed by an average of 86 minutes because of a ground delay for thunderstorms , Federal Aviation Administration official said. The ground delay is expected to last until 11 p.m.

Southwest Airlines reported 277 delayed and 12 canceled flights, followed by SkyWest with 142 delays and United with 118 delays.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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