Ground stop at Denver (DEN), Oct 15, 2026

EndedLow clouds halt Denver departures for 56 minutes

Started: Thu, Oct 15, 8:05 AM MDT14:05 UTC
Ended: Thu, Oct 15, 9:01 AM MDT15:01 UTC
Duration: 56 min
Cause: low ceilings

Ended: final numbers are being collected; this page becomes permanent shortly.

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What happened

AI-written · may contain mistakes. Written from the advisory text and weather only.

Cause: Clouds sitting low over Denver, with light rain and broken clouds about 2,500 feet up, led air traffic control to hold flights departing for the airport.

The ground stop began at 14:05 UTC on October 15, 2026, with departures held from six air traffic control centers. It ended at 15:01 UTC, after 56 minutes, ahead of the end time first listed.

Impact by airline

No airline data was collected for this ground stop.

Airline numbers appear after the first sample, within about 20 minutes of the start.

Impact by region

Air traffic control centers whose departures to the airport were held.

Center	Status
ZLA	Held
ZLC	Held
ZDV	Held
ZKC	Held
ZAB	Held
ZMP	Held

Timeline

Every change published while the ground stop was in effect, as seen each minute.

Oct 15, 8:05 AM MDT
Ground stop issued at DEN for low ceilings, until 9:15 am MDT. Departures held from ZLA, ZLC, ZDV, ZKC and 2 more.
Oct 15, 9:01 AM MDT
Ground stop ended after 56 min.

Advisories

The air traffic control advisories issued for this ground stop, as published.

ATCSCC ADVZY 039 DEN/ZDV 10/15/2026 CDM GROUND STOP

CTL ELEMENT: DEN
ELEMENT TYPE: APT
ADL TIME: 1359Z
GROUND STOP PERIOD: 15/1400Z - 15/1515Z
DEP FACILITIES INCLUDED: (1stTier) ZLA ZLC ZDV ZKC ZAB ZMP
PREVIOUS TOTAL, MAXIMUM, AVERAGE DELAYS: 0 / 0 / 0
NEW TOTAL, MAXIMUM, AVERAGE DELAYS: 2214 / 75 / 46
PROBABILITY OF EXTENSION: MEDIUM
IMPACTING CONDITION: WEATHER / LOW CEILINGS
COMMENTS:

Original advisory ↗

How it is measured

Status, timeline, cause and held centers: the national airspace status feed, checked every minute, and the air traffic control advisories it links to.
Delays by airline and region: departures and arrivals at DEN 30 or more minutes late, by their estimated delay against the schedule, sampled every 10 minutes while the stop is active and once more after it ends.
Totals and cancellations: arrival and departure boards for DEN, every 30 minutes while active and once more after the end. Delayed means 15 or more minutes late at DEN; cancelled is the airline's cancelled status; codeshares count once. Flights scheduled from the start until an hour after the end are counted.
Held at origin: the same arrivals boards, which carry each flight's scheduled and actual departure from its origin. A flight is held when it is still scheduled, not departed, 15 or more minutes past its scheduled departure at a sample taken during the stop. In scope: its origin is in a held center or listed facility; flights from elsewhere are late for other reasons.
Inbound in the air: the same arrivals boards. At each board taken during the stop, a flight to DEN is in the air when it has departed (en route, or with an actual departure time) and not landed, cancelled or diverted; one still shown in the air over an hour past its arrival estimate, or departed more than 18 hours earlier, is treated as stale and left out.
Diversions: an inbound flight marked diverted during the stop or the wrap-up after it (not one marked before it could have departed), or one still shown in the air 30+ minutes past its arrival estimate that ADS-B (by its ICAO call sign) then found on the ground at another airport, not its origin. The diversion airport is the airport ADS-B found it at, else the updated destination. Cancellations never count. Regional flights flown under another call sign can't be found on ADS-B, so their diversion airport may be unknown.
Aircraft on the ground and holding: ADS-B positions around DEN, every 5 minutes; the airline is read from the call sign. Holding counts airline flights only (passenger, regional and cargo), not private, military or medical flights.
Weather: METARs, SIGMETs and weather alerts.
News: headline links filtered to this airport and these days; we show titles and links only.

Data sources are listed on the credits page.