Winter arrives early with blast of snow

By: 
Steve Lyon

Washington County residents were digging out on Monday after the second blast of snow in less than a week blanketed the area.
 The 6-10 inches of snow that fell early Sunday morning and throughout the afternoon and evening caused numerous traffic snarls on U.S. Highway 95 as motorists spun out and slid off the highway.
 The snow arrived at the same time holiday travelers were headed home at the end of the long Thanksgiving weekend.
 Northbound traffic was stopped for a while near Mann Creek Store north of Weiser early on Sunday as drivers spun out. At least one semi-truck had to chain up to get over Midvale Hill.
 The Weiser School District called a snow day and canceled school and all sports practices on Monday. Schools were back in session on Tuesday.
 In Weiser, city crews were out with graders, backhoes and anything with a blade. They started on Sunday afternoon and and worked into the evening clearing the downtown area and streets around town. The snow was pushed to the middle of city streets and hauled off on Monday.
 County snowplow crews started at midnight on Sunday, waiting until after the snow stopped falling, and finished on Monday morning. The county employed four graders and seven trucks with snowplows to tackle the 488 miles of paved and gravel roads from Weiser to Cambridge.
 Some roads have a higher priority than others to plow during snow events. Making sure school buses can navigate roads is a priority. Some routes that snowplow drivers clear take nine hours to complete, road and bridge supervisor Arlen Wilkins said.
 The county snowplows and graders will typically go out if there is three or more inches of snow on paved roads if it is not melting and six to eight inches on gravel.
 The incorporated communities of Midvale and Cambridge do not maintain snowplow equipment and usually contract with private contractors for snow removal.
 By Monday afternoon, temperatures that stayed above the freezing mark turned what snow that was left on city streets and county roads into slush.
 The daily high temperatures through next Monday in Weiser are forecast to be a relatively warm 40-42 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
 There is a chance of more precipitation later this week, but it will likely fall in the form of rain in the valley.
 Sunday’s deluge of snow was the second storm to move through Weiser in a week. Winter unoffically arrived last week on the day before Thanksgiving with an accumulation of 3-6 inches of snow, much of which had melted by the weekend.
 It was the first snow Washington County residents had seen since last winter, and it was a little early.
 Winter doesn’t officially start until Dec. 21 this year.
 The second potent storm that blew through the region early Sunday morning dropped even more snow on Weiser and points east and north.
 The National Weather Service on Sunday issued a winter weather advisory for much of eastern Oregon and southwest and central Idaho through Monday morning at 11 a.m.
 City and county snowplows and other equipment have been ready to go since October.
 In advance of the first storm last week, Weiser street crews applied magnesium chloride, which is basically liquid salt, around town in a pre-emptive effort to prevent precipitation from freezing into ice on streets.
 The city has a truck with a 300-gallon tank. Sand is also spread at intersections and on streets for traction during slick conditions.
 

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Signal American

18 E. Idaho St.
Weiser, ID 83672
PH: (208) 549-1717
FAX: (208) 549-1718
 

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