A thunderstorm on the Front Range doesn’t usually have much of an effect on Grand Junction, unless you happen to work at the Grand Junction Regional Airport where a storm hundreds of miles away can send 10 or more commercial jets heading your way.

Grand Junction Regional Airport Executive Director Angela Padalecki said these diversions often happen with limited warning time. In situations where a large number of commercial aircraft are suddenly diverted from Denver International Airport to Grand Junction, she said it becomes an all hands on deck situation.

“This summer we had 18 diversions from Denver in less than an hour,” Padalecki said. “That required us to use all the ramp space we had. Obviously, at the airport different entities lease different ramp space (like the Bureau of Land M

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