Issue date: 3/1/07 Section: Campus News

Media Credit: Jennifer Hietpas A snow plow clears off residential streets in the Third Ward Sunday after storms left 13.4 inches of snow on Eau Claire.

After going most of December and January without much snow accumulation, residents in the Chippewa Valley awoke to a thick, white blanket covering the ground this weekend.

Those needing to travel were cautioned not to and found it difficult when they did because many residential streets were not cleared of the snow until late Sunday night.

Junior Andrew Duckert, who lives on the 600 block of Broadway Street said the roads around his house were snow-covered most of the weekend.

"(The plows) didn't come through until late Sunday afternoon, and they did a pretty pathetic job too," Duckert said, adding that the plow only made one or two passes.

The Street Maintenance Division of the Eau Claire City Public Works Department has 324 miles of streets that need to be attended to after a snowfall, starting with the 79 miles of main roads, according to a city press release. Once those roads are completely clear, workers begin plowing the nearly 249 miles residential streets.

It takes crews working around the clock about 12 hours after a snowfall to get all of the roads in the city completely clear, according to the release.

Doug Michaels, meteorologist for WQOW-TV 18, said the snowstorm, which dumped 13.4 inches of snow in the Eau Claire area, came in two waves.

"The storm had two main rounds, Friday night was mostly excess moisture from the upcoming storm falling as snow," Michaels said. "Saturday night's snow was the result of the storm itself actually moving across the area."

Michaels attributed the strength of the storm to the amount of moisture the storm was able to draw from the Gulf of Mexico as well as the amount of time the storm had to develop.
The city isn't out of the woods yet, Michaels said, adding that another storm system has Eau Claire and Western Wisconsin in its track.

The National Weather Service predicted the storm would drop two to four inches of snow Wednesday night. It also predicted an additional four to eight inches of snow will fall throughout the day on Thursday and continue on Friday.

NWS predicts overall storm totals to reach one foot or more. It also predicts high winds with gusts as high as 30 mph throughout the storm, making travel difficult.

"Wednesday night's storm has the same set up as this past weekend," Michaels said. "The track is just a touch different, but we are in the path to see that heavier snow again."

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