The Storm In A Hurry Could Have Been Worse

By Steve Bigham

Newtown’s highway department plowed an estimated 38.1 million cubic feet of snow this past weekend as it battled to clear the town’s 275 miles of road.

The biggest snow storm since 1996 dumped an average of 12-15 inches of snow on the town, turning the landscape to a beautiful shade of white.

“This was similar to the storm we had back in ‘96. It only seemed exceptional because we’ve had so few storms like this in the past several years. This storm was much easier to handle than an ice storm,” noted Public Works Director Fred Hurley this week.

Mr Hurley and his crew got started a little earlier than expected Saturday morning. The snow, originally slated to start falling by 8 or 9 am, actually began around 5:30 am. Newtown’s plow fleet was out on the roads soon after that and worked for the next 20 hours.

Each of the 25 plow drivers is assigned a circuit of roads approximately 14 miles long. It takes about three hours to complete a route, at which time the driver returns to the highway department to re-stock on sand and salt. Then, it is back out onto the roadways.

“The crew did a nice job. I was out on the roads a few times and they were in good condition not long after the storm,” First Selectman Herb Rosenthal said.

Fortunately, the storm ended long before forecasters had predicted, saving the area from being hit with two feet of snow or more.

“We adjusted to how we were going to approach. Originally, we were told it would persist late into the night, but the back end of the storm blew out,” Mr Hurley said.

Last weekend’s blizzard did not cause the kind of traffic problems that it might have under different circumstances. “It was a combination of things that made it not too bad. Most people stayed home so traffic was lighter than usual. Also being a holiday weekend, people stayed home and relaxed, put another log on the fire, and heated up some hot cocoa,” Mr Hurley said.

Highway crews were dispatched to the area around Hundred Acres Road at around 4 pm after a major barn fire broke out Saturday. As fire trucks, police, and ambulance approached, crews hastily sanded and plowed the roadways.

By 1 am, the highway crews had sufficiently cleared the roads and were sent home, only to return at 9 am Sunday to clean up the rest of the town.

Mike Leona of the Western Connecticut State University Weather Center reports the Danbury area received an average of 13 inches of snow, which is the most since January of 1996 when a storm dumped 20 inches over a two-day period. There were some that were predicting the area might get hit with that much this time around. But things tapered off sooner than expected.

“The snow was pretty much gone by the time the sun went down. Some had predicted it might go through the night, but it sped along the coast faster than we thought,” Mr Leona explained.

According to Mr Leona, last weekend’s storm was actually the same storm that brought Oklahoma and Arkansas its Christmas ice storm. It was a slow mover at first, and by midweek it had hit the Georgia coast, bringing mostly rain. As the storm ran up the coast it began to dissipate. However, as it reached the Carolina coast, it took the energy from a low-pressure system centered over the Great Lakes and blew up over the New Jersey coast to New England.

December 2000 ended with a total of 18 inches of snowfall, almost as much as the rest of the year combined. December 1999 received just one inch of snow.

Although snow flurries are expected for Friday, no major storms are expected for at least a few more days. And we may see some warmer weather in the coming weeks. The cold spell of recent weeks appears to be losing steam.