PHOENIX — Winter weather stranded thousands of airline passengers on Thursday in a most unusual place: the desert Southwest.
Flights into and out of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport were severely curtailed on Thursday afternoon because of high winds from a winter storm that dumped heavy rain and deep snow on much of Arizona and California. A limited number of Phoenix planes were still taking off and landing.
Southwest Airlines canceled all arriving and departing flights at Sky Harbor and didn't plan to resume them until Friday.
The airline also canceled flights in Tucson, Ariz., and at Southern California airports. All Southwest takeoffs and landings at airports in Burbank, Ontario and San Diego in California were suspended, most were canceled at John Wayne airport in Orange County, and some were canceled at Los Angeles International Airport.
Airline spokesman Brad Hawkins said more than 400 California and Arizona flights had been canceled as of early afternoon. Passengers were booked on later Southwest flights. Operations were to resume by 4 p.m. in San Diego and 6 p.m. in Burbank and Ontario.
The exact number of Southwest flights affected in Phoenix wasn't available, but the airline has 173 daily nonstops from Phoenix to 44 cities and additional service to 22 cities, said spokeswoman Olga Romero. There are a similar number of arrivals.
US Airways trimmed its Phoenix flight schedule and had canceled 14 mainline and 12 US Airways Express flights. Other operations were continuing as weather allowed, said airline spokeswoman Valerie Wunder. US Airways has 265 daily departures from Phoenix.
United Airlines and other carriers severely curtailed operations at Sky Harbor.
A strong winter storm moving through the West was the culprit. The National Weather Service predicted up to 7 inches of rain could fall on Thursday and Friday in the Phoenix area, and high winds were blowing Thursday afternoon.