Not long after sunrise on Wednesday, Environment Canada’s prediction that 15 centimetes of snow would fall on Kelowna had become reality.
Gary Appel was in the thick of it by 2 a.m., out in a heavy road plow, clearing snow from the city’s busiest roads.
“It can be a little hairy sometimes like today. The road conditions aren’t the best but we are trying to keep them as best as we can,” Appel said.
Public Works Manager Geert Bos said the forecast helped Appel and the rest of his crew prepare for the first wintry day of the season. There were 50 teams out by 3 a.m. clearing priority one routes.
“They will keep going through the priority one routes (major routes through the city) for the duration of the event. So as long as it keeps snowing, you’ll see all crews go through here,” he said, as snow continued to fall around him.
An additional 37 contract units were also tapped to help with the effort, amounting to a total of 87 units clearing streets.
We’ve all gone into this by 37 contract units as well. So there’s a total of 87 units out there right now dealing with this
Knowing the volume of snow to fall helped Bos strategize on the best way to clear the city.
“We knew will be going to see some city accumulation so downtown, for example, you’ll see that we’ll start moving to snow in the center of the right away rather than to the sides,” he said.
“That’s in case we need to remove it later in the week, we’re ready to go for that. Additionally, we have assigned two units to the transit system and they’ll be (moving through) Highway 33 and Highway 97 on a continuous basis to follow the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure crews to make sure that the bus pull outs and pull ins remain accessible at all times.”
The city is currently fully stocked with sand, too. It has 3,000 tonnes of material full of calcium, magnesium and salt at their disposal, ready to go.
Bos said that there are no real surprises in Wednesday’s snowstorm.
“When we get a low pressure system moving to the south of us, we know we’re going to get to southerly winds, we know it’s going to disrupt the cold air in the valley, we know it’s going to mix with the coastal moisture,” he said.
That said, he recommended that if people don’t have to go out on the roads today, they shouldn’t.
And, if they live in a cul-de-sac tonight, clear the way so the plow trucks can get the road cleared
“If you have hockey nets or basketball hoops hitting that please move on to your yard so that the guys can come through really quickly and clean it out efficiently,” he said.
Despite the heavy snowfall, people have yet to complain about the conditions of roads.
Bos said typically that doesn’t happen until around eight hours after the snow has fallen and side streets are still snowy.
He reminded area residents that a good rule of thumb is that when the snow stops, the city has eight hours for priority one roads to be cleared, 12 hours for priority two roads and 12 hours for priority three roads. All these things are done with budgetary and safety concerns top of mind.
Right now, at least, one of those things are in good stead courtesy of a unusually warm start to the season.
“We’re burning about $150,000 a day but since we’ve had a pretty green winter so far ,” he said.
The total snow budget for the year is pegged at $3.8 million and it looks like it will be falling below seasonal norms, so far.
Tonight, however, everyone on Bos’s team will be out and working hard.
“I have to give a shout out to the crews it’s they’re running long shifts. The average plow drivers is probably behind the wheel for about 12 hours per shift,” he said. “Be patient with the crews, they’re doing the best they can”
