Snow, be gone

Published 8:33 pm Friday, February 27, 2015

Suffolk’s Justin Gibbs II, 8, clears snow from the family minivan in downtown Suffolk on Friday morning. The weather is expected to warm up beginning Sunday, with the possibility of rain also predicted, so the snow will not stay around long.

Suffolk’s Justin Gibbs II, 8, clears snow from the family minivan in downtown Suffolk on Friday morning. The weather is expected to warm up beginning Sunday, with the possibility of rain also predicted, so the snow will not stay around long.

After what many are hoping was the last snow of the winter, Suffolk can expect warmer weather next week.

Suffolk public works crews were back to regular shifts Friday morning after three 12-hour rotations, according to city spokeswoman Diana Klink.

Before, during and after Mother Nature dumped 6 to 8 inches of snow on the city, they treated the roads with more than 1,050 tons of salt/sand abrasive and thousands of gallons of brine, and plowed most primary and secondary roads and some neighborhood streets.

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“At this point, crews are working on applying abrasives to areas where freezing is significant, and plowing is largely limited to cleaning up specific spots such as turn lanes and intersections, with a few trucks operating in larger neighborhoods,” Klink stated.

Tight turning radii and dead-ends are among the factors that make it difficult for snowplows and other large snow-response equipment to access some neighborhoods. “We’ve requested that citizens remove their parked vehicles from the roadways where possible so that snow plows are not impeded in accessing these areas,” Klink added.

While crews are back to eight-hour shifts, public works will have workers available overnight to “combat any additional refreezing” if needed, according to Klink.

She reminded motorists to continue to exercise extreme caution, as icy spots are scattered about that have the potential to refreeze tonight, when a low of 19 is forecast.

According to a news release from the Virginia Department of Transportation, 90 National Guard soldiers and airmen had been helping with the clean-up effort around Virginia, their missions ranging from emergency transport to helping remove snow.

Between midnight Thursday and 7 a.m. Friday, the Chesapeake division of the Virginia State Police fielded 515 calls for service, spokeswoman Sgt. Michelle Anaya stated, responding to 154 traffic crashes and 117 disabled vehicles. No fatalities were reported.

By Friday morning, most Suffolk parking lots on major roads were clear of snow. Some citizens had some late driveway shoveling or — like 8-year-old Justin Gibbs II — windshield scraping.

Justin was removing snow and ice from the family minivan, parked outside his house on Howard Place in downtown Suffolk.

It wasn’t his favorite aspect of Wednesday and Thursday’s snowstorm. “Probably building a weird-looking snowman” took those honors, he said.

How public schools will make up three lost instructional days last week won’t be decided until Monday at the earliest, when students are expected to be back in classrooms, according to district spokeswoman Bethanne Bradshaw.

“It might take longer,” Bradshaw said in an email, explaining that the superintendent and staff would develop a proposed make-up schedule, and the superintendent would phone school board members individually to run it past them.

Providing quality instructional time is the key consideration, according to Bradshaw. “Attendance on a holiday makeup day or Saturday makeup day does not always make for quality instructional time,” she stated.

“Some surrounding school divisions have added additional minutes to the school day for the remainder of the school year. We want to be putting students as the main focus and not just attempting to meet a state requirement.”

Weather conditions should improve next week, forecasters say.

Sunday’s low should be the last of the truly sub-freezing temperatures for the foreseeable future. Predicted are overnight lows of 35 for Sunday and 33 for Monday, before Tuesday night warms up to a practically balmy low of 42, after a high of 49 during the day.

A daytime high of 60 is likely for Wednesday, and 53 for Thursday. The possibility of rain is also forecast, with the chance hovering around 50 percent for Sunday night, Monday and Tuesday.