Dale Iles, a highway foreman with the Webster County Office of the Engineer, poses next to a 2020 Mack truck Friday. The Secondary Roads Department was busy clearing gravel and asphalt roads after the last snow storm.
Webster County escaped relatively unscathed from this winter’s second blizzard after systems dropped five to seven inches of snow with high winds Thursday night through Friday morning.
Counties west of Webster County did not have more severe snowfall, but did have stronger winds, said Rod Donavon, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Wind gusts in Northwest Iowa reached between 50 and 60 mph, with slower speeds in central Iowa and Fort Dodge. Friday’s maximum wind gust at Fort Dodge was 40 mph between approximately 3 and 4 a.m.
Most of the north central and western Iowa blizzard advisory was subsequently downgraded to a winter weather advisory that expired at 6 p.m. Friday.
“For the most part, the winds are easing across the area. They will remain windy with gusts. “ Donavon said. “The most important thing is that the snow is moving and (the snow melts) on the roads that could freeze again once we pass the sunset.”
Some radiation through the clouds with temperatures just above freezing helped melt frozen roads after the snow stopped Friday morning.
Some blackouts occurred between midnight and 6 a.m. Friday, but Donavon said the risk of that happening again has decreased.
“This weather system came out of Kansas and Missouri, and it was a strange system,” he said. “It went through eastern Iowa yesterday and backtracked a bit today.”
After moving west into Iowa, it began moving southeast into west-central Illinois.
“It’s a strange system when it comes to these events,” he said. “A lot of times, these tend to pass to the northeast, but the way this enveloped and receded to the west was unusual.”
Thanks to residents who heeded the warnings, Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Wes Niles said this storm was uneventful, traffic-wise, like the last storm in December.
“The storm was not what was forecast, so that helped a lot,” he said. “The timing of the storm certainly helped. Most people were at home in bed at the time. “
Niles said snow accumulation on the roads became apparent around 10:30 p.m. Thursday.
Two stabbed semi-trailer accidents were reported – one on Interstate 35 and another on US Highway 20 at mile marker 135, between Webster City and Fort Dodge, at 5:35 a.m. Friday.
Niles reported no other accidents other than cars stuck in ditches, less than expected from a snowstorm.
“(Since) the snow is so heavy and wet, visibility was not as poor as predicted,” he said.
The blackouts occurred very early in the morning when the traffic was very light.
Niles said the ISP did not anticipate any problems with snowmelt freezing overnight.
“The (Department of Transportation) does a good job of treating problem areas,” he said.
Jamie Johll, a Webster County engineer, said the Secondary Roads Department went to work at 4 a.m. Friday.
“We had a lot of warnings, so we were prepared”, Johll said. “We got to work this morning and stayed on paved roads for most of the morning. The storm was much worse in the western half of the county. They’re a little behind the guys in the eastern half of the county. In the eastern half, those roads were clear at 10 am, so we were able to work on gravel roads. “
Dale Iles is the highway foreman for District 2, which covers the western side of the county.
He said trucks returning from the roads looked pretty neglected.
“We are a mess” he said. “You can’t even tell what color the trucks are. We’ve been on gravel all morning. “
Johll said Friday afternoon that the hope was to have all the roads open by the time crews returned home that night.
“We hope to open up all the gravel roads and make one more pass on the paved roads,” Johll said.
The county used 30 trucks to do the job. Each has a winged plow on the sides and sanders on the back.
About half of the trucks have what is called an abdominal blade, Johll said.
“We call it a razor under the middle of the truck,” he said. “We can apply downward pressure with that blade to remove the ice from the road.”
Johll said the county will not remove the highway graders unless it is “The really heavy stuff.”
Iles said that while the snow fell and blew in the morning, it did not create whitening conditions.
“It was good enough that we could get the plows out,” he said.
Iles told them that it seems that two storms are never the same.
“The moment we think the storm will be bad, he misses us”, he said. “Or we were supposed to have a couple of inches and we get eight because it just stayed here.”
The county maintenance department has 38 employees.
Within the county, he said there are 290 miles of paved roads and about 900 miles of gravel roads.
The teams will go out again Monday to expand everything, Johll said.
“It was definitely interesting,” Fort Dodge Public Works Director Brett Daniel said of the storm. “That wind caused some problems.”
City crews battled snow build-up on roads on the outskirts of the city, such as 32nd Street, he said. He added that there was a “significant displacement” in the center.
Daniel said that about 25 employees worked with 10 plow trucks, two loaders and two graders to clear the streets.
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