Our county road commission is ready to go. They will be out during the storm to try to keep our roads open. However if the intensity of the storm is too strong and visibility is impossible, they will be pulled off the roads until they can get back out again. Gotta stay safe. And of course the job is going to require them to be away from their families over the Christmas holidays. They have all the big plows mounted to the trucks. They usually don’t mount those plows until the snowbanks or snow depth on the roads require it. They are extremely heavy and they can make the trucks use more fuel when they’re carrying them
They have been out today making one more pass over the roads, pushing banks back and scraping roads down. I took these pictures when they went past my house this afternoon. You can see the big plow mounted on the front and underneath the cab of the truck is another blade called a belly blade. This is what they used to clear the roads until thry need those big plows. In the second picture you will notice on the side of the truck another scoop like blade, that is called a wing. It is deployed out when they are plowing the main highways and the expressways and sometimes on otber roads. . This plow can be as wide as 6 feet and it allows them to plow a wider section of the road by using that blade the belly blade and the big plow all at one time. I didn’t get the picture of the back of the truck but on the back of the truck is a spreader, that spreads out a mix of salt and sand behind. them. Stall is not very effective below 20° so sand is mixed in to help with traction. Sometimes it’s more it’s more sand than salt. The conditions dictate the mixture. All of this equipment is operating from the drivers seat by a computer and they can track exactly how much sand and salt and whatever they are spreading and keeping track of the Plows, deploying whichever one they need or all of them. It is quite a sight to watch it when the whole works is in operation. Especially if they are traveling at the speed of about 45 miles an hour, that’s snow flies. They also have a couple of huge big snowblower is that they can mount on the trucks to to tackle the drifts. All of this operation is found by the same computer back to the main road commission building so that they can track exactly where their trucks are, how much stuff they are spreading and so forth..
And then it comes down to us little people. If you have I have a duty pick up truck that is capable of carrying a snow plow on the front then they will be on there. Or you may have a riding lawn tractors that has a snow blower motor on the front or you may have walk behind snow blowers or you may just have a snow shovel. My snow blowers are ready to go. Course they have already been working this winter.
And last but not least, some of the NWS office staff are going to to stay on through the entire storm so they are setting up shop. They along with doctors and nurses and other people whose jobs are you essential, will have to stay where they are p, as they probably will not be able to get home or other staff to get in. . So there will be a lot of people missing their loved ones over the Christmas weekend.
And last but not least there is the humorous side of the whole thing
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