A swift, powerful winter storm clobbered Longmont with more than 15 inches of snow on Wednesday, shutting down schools, businesses and government offices, and causing power outages, traffic collisions and downed trees.

Times-Call weather consultant Don Lewis said 15.4 inches of snow fell in Longmont on Wednesday.

The National Weather Service is predicting mostly sunny skies Thursday with temperatures nearing the 50s, but rain and snow could return to Longmont on Friday afternoon heading into the weekend.

Trash and recycling Longmont: Wednesday and Thursday customers will be served on Thursday. Carts should be out by 7 a.m. for pickup Western Disposal: Residential collection resumes Thursday and there will be a one-day delay for the rest of the week One Way Disposal: See the list of affected addresses at Bit.ly/1WJNdh3. If trash wasn’t picked up Wednesday, double will be collected on March 30 Republic Services: Closed until Friday Waste Connections: There will be a one-day delay for all customers for the rest of the week

The storm wreaked havoc on city streets, and Longmont police responded to 20 traffic accidents between 6 a.m. and 1 p.m., one of them involving a snowplow. At least two RTD buses became stuck or broke down on slushy streets.

Police urged residents to stay home Wednesday, and the city closed many of its facilities by the afternoon.

Cmdr. Jeff Satur said officers — in addition to responding to numerous crashes — pulled tree limbs out of streets and helped city workers clean traffic signals that had become caked in snow and not visible.

Longmont resident Pam Turner was picking up her dachshund from doggie day care, to return to Airborne Gymnastics where she lives and works, when she got stuck in the snow at Venice Street and Ninth Avenue.

“We made the decision to close, because this isn’t 3 to 6 inches,” Turner said. “It’s hard to predict the weather. It seems like Longmont doesn’t usually get the snow.”

Turner was waiting for a coworker’s husband to come help her out of the snow, but he was delayed because his windshield wipers quit working.

Closed for the day

Weld and Boulder counties, Firestone, Frederick and Dacono shuttered their offices, and Frederick police urged residents to shelter in place Wednesday afternoon because of poor road conditions and traffic accidents.

Front Range Community College is on spring break but closed its Longmont campus. St. Vrain Valley School District canceled school.

District spokesman Damon Brown said the decision to call a snow day was made early Wednesday morning because of the high winds, difficult driving conditions and forecast for continued snow.

“It just came in really, really fast and really, really strong,” he said. “There were blizzard-like conditions right at school-bus drive times.”

Craig Morales, owner of Santiagos at 215 Main St., said he had received big orders for burritos early in the day, with several city employees working on plow crews coming in during the morning.

But by 11 a.m., his restaurant was mostly empty, and he had taken time to stop and eat.

“I’ll probably close after lunch, so we don’t have to bring in the night people, and the day people can get home safely,” Morales said.

He said he had shoveled his front walkway about five times before 11 a.m., but a friend who lives up in the mountains told him that the stars were shining at 5 a.m.

“This is the worst one this year,” Morales said. “It’s so heavy. The drive in from Mead was bad.”

Messy roads and power outages

Up and down the Front Range, roads and highways were a mess.

The Colorado Department of Transportation said at 11 a.m. that Interstate 25 was closed from Colo. 7 to Colo. 402 because of accidents. Snapped power lines were reported on Colo. 56 near Berthoud.

A stretch of Colo. 52 between East County Line Road and 75th Street had a half-dozen vehicles stuck in deep snow drifts on Wednesday afternoon. A man was overheard offering to buy another man a beer for pulling his truck out.

Longmont suspended Wednesday’s curbside trash and recycling services, but they were expected to resume Thursday. City officials said all Wednesday and Thursday trash and recycling customers were to be served on Thursday.

Longmont Power and Communications reported numerous power outages during the day, including one that affected 2,500 customers in the area between Hover Street east to Francis Street and the train tracks north to Colo. 66.

Outages were also reported near Pratt Street in between Grand Avenue and Kanemoto Park and the area around Rogers Road and Weaver Park Road. The town of Lyons reported numerous power outages.

The storm littered the streets with broken tree limbs, and resident Tina Garcia was praying none of the trees in her backyard had snapped and landed on her home.

Nonetheless, she was thrilled to have a day off, which she planned on spending shoveling snow, drinking coffee and “hibernating.”

“This is great,” Garcia said. “I’m so happy to be home, because I work in Boulder and couldn’t make it in.”

John Bear: 303-684-5212, bearj@timescall.com or twitter.com/johnbearwithme