Area digs out after spring snowstorm
Pelican Rapids gets 18 inches, Fergus Falls 15
Published Monday, April 28, 2008
Photo by Jeff Hage
A street sign on Lincoln Avenue in Fergus Falls warns residents of snow removal times on Sunday after a late April snowstorm dumped a foot of snow or more across parts of western and northern Minnesota, forcing authorities to close a major freeway.
This weekend’s snowstorm dumped 15 inches on Fergus Falls and left some Otter Tail County residents digging out well into Sunday.
The spring storm brought April snow totals to record amounts in some parts of the region, said Dave Kellenbenz, senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Forks. It also brought a different kind of snowfall than most early winter storms.
“A big thing about the spring storms like this is it’s very wet snow because there’s a lot of moisture,” Kellenbenz said.
That heavy snow made plowing a challenge for county workers, said Dallas Grewe, maintenance supervisor for Otter Tail County.
“This is probably the toughest plowing they can run into,” he said, explaining the difficulty of clearing heavy snow from soft roadways. “They have to be very careful that the wing (of the plow) doesn’t run into the shoulder.”
County plows hit the roads late Friday afternoon, Grewe said, running until after dark. Plows were out again by 4 a.m. Saturday, returning Sunday from 4 a.m. to noon. Otter Tail County has 26 different plow routes, with one operator assigned to each 75 to 90-mile stretch.
In Fergus Falls, plows headed out around 2 a.m. Saturday, said Public Works Director Anne Martens. They stayed on the roads until late Saturday night, clearing first the main thoroughfares before attending to side arteries. City plows returned Sunday to haul away snow piles from the day before.
Wet, heavy snow can sometimes result in equipment failures, Martens said, and this was the case over the weekend.
Conditions were so bad that Interstate 94 closed from about 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, said Andy Schmidt, a trooper with the State Patrol out of Detroit Lakes.
“This is the first time, to my knowledge, that it has been closed this late for this reason,” he said.
The State Patrol received 115 reports of area vehicles off the road, Schmidt said, with 34 crashes involving property damage. Four crashes resulted in injuries; a fatal accident near Alexandria killed Julian Ray Kvanbek, 73, Evansville, and Kenneth Wade Klug, 62, Garfield, Friday afternoon.
Kellenbenz said the National Weather Service is tracking another system that could bring rain or snow to the area later in the week.
In the meantime, snow is expected to melt in the next few days as temperatures reach the 50s by Wednesday or Thursday.
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