This winter has had a little bit of everything thus far, from historic blizzards to major ice storms and enough snow showers to drive any meteorologist crazy. Each of these events impact individuals differently depending on if you are a snow contractor, a property manager, part of a DPW road crew, or simply an individual who needs to travel somewhere.
In general, it seems everyone’s favorite winter event (if they were forced to pick) is a five or six hour snowfall that leaves 2-4 inches of snow at 28-32 degrees and starts just after the kids are in school and ends before school & work let out. This is because many contractors and road crews are ready to go, there are no extreme conditions to contend with, and overall operations are fairly straight forward.
While this event might be the lesser of all evils, it is also one of the least frequent. A great deal of the country east of the Rockies is no stranger to freezing rain and sleet events as well as the occasional major snow storm. It is these types of storms which wreak havoc on a contractor’s billing or a property manager’s budget, not to mention the travel of millions of individuals. But similarly to how an area’s seasonal average snowfall is really nothing more than a general mid-point of extremes, Mother Nature has a way of equalizing winter events both for contractors and property managers.
Take for instance a skier’s dream snowfall: 8.0 inches of very dry, powdery, fluffy snow. We call this “leaf-blower” snow in the office. This type of snowfall comes with snowfall ratios of 20 inches of snow for every 1 inch of liquid water. This is usually preferred by those who are responsible for snow removal because it is a much lighter snowfall to plow away and de-icing material is typically quite effective. These are the storms which are a win for the plow driver because it causes much less wear-and-tear on both equipment and staff.
On the other side of the coin is probably everyone’s least favorite event: 2 inches of heavy snow and sleet with one quarter inch of freezing rain at night. Typically, when I tell our Forecast Alert clients that one of these events is on the horizon, I can immediately sense the wave of concern crash down on the conversation. The strategies and planning and techniques of combating a storm of this nature are endless. Schools and businesses need to plan for a delay or closure. Individuals must make contingency plans for their day. Not to mention, these are the events that are a nightmare for anyone who has to shovel their driveway, plow a parking lot, or drive home from work. Unfortunately for those working to keep all the travel-ways clear with de-icing material, freezing rain will often times wash it all away and continue to cause treacherous conditions. The concern I mentioned before the event often times turns into a “loss” for those on the snow removal side of things, because that simpler 20-to-1 ratio fluffy type snow just turned into a 4-to-1 ratio slushy, icy mess.
The amazing part about the examples above is the fact that both of these events would have likely resulted from the same amount of liquid precipitation: generally 0.40” of liquid water. One storm however produced 8.0 inches of accumulation while the other resulted in only 2.0 inches. This is only one of the many intricacies when dealing with the weather before, during, and after an event.
