It Keeps Snowing...and Snowing...and Snowing

Mother nature must have it out for us this spring. I thought our last snow event on the first day of the month would be it for this year. Sure, I could see a few snow showers and flurries in the air, but nothing accumulating; not until the new winter season at the end of this year. Boy, was I ever wrong. Our local National Weather Service is predicting anywhere from four to 12 inches of new snow from the latest storm churning to our south. The least amount of snow will fall along areas near the lakeshore to the most falling within the highlands.

I thought I would take some pictures "before" the storm arrives. As you can see in these photos, most of the snow is gone here in the city except for the piles. This particular photo is looking northeast and shows the last of the snow in the parking lot.

Here's a street view and shows the snow pile at a different angle of that in the previous shot. As you can see, there's really not a lot of snow in the neighborhood anymore!

A northbound shot of the same street. If you look closely, particularly around the edges, you can see a few snowbanks remaining.

Last but not least, a shot from the other end of the lot with a few remaining snowbanks.

There's actually quite a bit of grass visible around town. All it would take is one more "warm" week and all the rest of the snow would be totally gone. This latest storm will probably set us back a week and the weather gods are forecasting another impending snow storm of doom by the end of this week that could be quite similar to the storm of March 31 - April 1! So needless to say, winter isn't quite over yet here in Michigan's Upper Peninsula; not by a long shot. I'll wager a guess and say the snow might possibly be completely gone by May 1, but that might be overly optimistic. All we can do is cross our fingers and hope that spring will finally stay after this week's snow events. Although, we are due for a May snow storm!

A Night to Remember (at work)

It was late Tuesday night and another midnight shift where I work. The good part about it was that it was the last midnight shift of the stretch before I started my long weekend. So needless to say, I was in pretty good spirits. Our previous night was horrendous with many different things going wrong, so earlier on Tuesday, I really did not feel like coming to work for that night and contemplated even taking the night off. The weather wasn't the greatest outside and I could've always used that as an excuse. But as I was about to leave, the weather calmed down and I knew I shouldn't let one bad night at work deter me from coming the next night. So I forged ahead and made the 20 mile drive to work. When I got there, I knew I should've taken the night off after all.

My job as an assistant plant operator at the mine includes operating the concentrator when our regular crew operator is not there. That was the case Tuesday night so I had to fill-in that role. Our crew was already short one person and without me on the floor, that left us without two people on the floor. So we were pretty short handed and when you throw in us having to shut the entire plant down within short notice, well it basically means all hands on deck for the crew. People are placed in positions that they wouldn't normally be in and things get to be pretty hectic. That was the case when I entered the control room. The previous crew and control room operator began the process of shutting the plant down because a set of very important pumps that brings water into the plant had kicked out due to an unknown electrical problem. Without these pumps, we cannot run anything. A tank stores the water short-time, so it allows us to shut things down in a relatively controlled manner. Seeing that we could not re-start these pumps in a timely noticed, the crew on afternoon shift began the process of shutting things down. The operator on afternoon shift was already scheduled to stay two hours over for casual overtime, so he assisted me in getting the rest of the plant shut down. By the time all was said and done, we had everything down within two hours into our shift and not much time left to spare. It was an interesting experience; never being in that role before of shutting things down like that. Then began the process of draining a pair of very important lines for our tailings system outside. That is where things really got interesting.

Even though I was a control room operator that night, I was techically not supposed to go out on the floor and lend a hand to the rest of the crew. But seeing as the afternoon operator stayed on (and didn't leave until around 4:30 AM Wednesday morning), I headed out into the storm (actually, I was sent on this very important mission with another person on my crew by the shift foreman). I dressed up as warmly as I could with the appropriate gear, gathered up some equipment to bring outside, and headed out with my partner in a company vehicle to one of the lines we needed to drain. Whenever we have to shut the plant down or we need to switch tailings lines, the line we are using needs to be drained. On the tailings line itself, there are six drains. We needed to open those up so the line could drain properly. Beyond this, there is another line with 11 drains that needed to be opened as part of the tailings booster line. This is located on our tailings basin which is an elevated area where the by-product of the mining process is pumped to. The condition atop of the dikes was just too bad. I didn't get out that far as some other members of my crew did, but from what they described, it was absolutely hellish. Blizzard conditions, blinding snow, winds in excess of 50 miles per hour greeted them. There was absolutely no way that line could be drained, so it was determined that we focus our sights on draining the other line; definitely the more critical line of the plant.

A total of five of us met at drain number three, where we brought along various torches, rose buds, and other heating utensils to try and thaw open valves and drains that were froze shut. Earlier that day, temperatures were in the middle to upper 30's and even some light rain fell. A cold front moved past earlier in the evening dropping temperatures fast. So it was easy to see why everything froze up the way it did. But we were on a fast track to try and drain the line because we didn't want the line to freeze, either. A few of the drains were stubborn and wouldn't unleash their material, but eventually we got them all opened up. But it certainly wasn't easy. The booster line was a lost cause because the conditions were very much life threatening. At least we were able to get the main tailings line opened up, however. Otherwise that really could've been a catastrophe.

I know everyone on my crew was hoping for an easy and quiet last shift before long weekend but it never materialized. And despite the craziness of the entire night, we accomplished pretty much all that we could do. We were satisfied with our job, even though the plant was never able to start back up again. I am happy to report that the mine is back up and running today after a day in a half break. Those kinds of shut-downs usually do not last that long unless they're because of economic reasons, etc. But as least things are relatively back to normal than they were late Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.

Weather Review

After a very chilly stretch of winter weather here in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the weather looks to modify within the next day or so. The last week in a half or so brought on Arctic Air down from Canada. We went through a stretch of about five days with high temperatures in the single digits and overnight lows well below zero. When it's cold, we haven't seen much snow. Things began to warm up very slowly and at the peak of the warmth on Monday and Tuesday of this week, temperatures rose to the low 40's. Some areas of the region even picked up some rain. But that is when the bottom dropped out.

A very strong cold front pushed through, dropping temperatures a good 20 to 30 degrees in an hour's time. The frontal passage also produced some meaningful snows in the general four to eight inch range, with higher totals in the northwest and northeastern U.P. Winds howled from the west-northwest; that combined with temperatures around zero brought dangerous wind chills anywhere from -30 to -50. We had a power failure to a very important set of equipment where I work which caused us to shut the plant down. All of my crew was out in the elements during the height of the horrendous weather and I can tell you one thing; it was VERY unpleasant. The wind was whipping the newly fallen snow and caused blizzard conditions. At times, it was very difficult to see five feet in front of you. Since then, the weather has calmed down and temperatures are beginning to warm up. Today, we experienced a high temperature in the lower teen's with ample sunshine. Things look to get even warmer in the days ahead with temps in the mid to upper 20's and continued sunshine. Now THAT'S enjoyable winter weather.

March Snow Storms

We've had some dandy snow storms in the past during the month of March. We just experienced another March snow storm here in the Upper Peninsula the past few days to add to the record books, but it's not going to be a very memorable one. We picked up around a foot of snow to add to the snow pack. And it's not the fluffy kind of snow, either, as there is a decent-amount of moisture to it. It really is not easy to move it around. It's currently snowing as we speak, with the storm enhancing squalls from Lake Superior. It would not surprise me if we picked up another six inches of snow before tomorrow morning. But we're already into the month of March and spring isn't that far away now.

I remember some pretty spectacular snow storms when I was a kid. This storm was a little too close by which didn't allow us to receive more system snow than what we could've. The winds also weren't as strong as what they could've been. If all of the right ingredients came together, we could be talking about six to eight foot snow drifts, strong winds, blizzard conditions, and storm totals nearing 30 inches. Those are the kinds of storms I remember when I was little. Usually we'd get this huge snow drift to form right in front of the house that would be so high in the air, almost up to the eves of the roof. The snowbanks would be quite high, as tall as the street sign near the end of the driveway. There would be snow as far as the eye can see. I could tell the winds would be howling when the little tag that hangs down from the electric meter on the exterior wall of my bedroom would rattle away, waking me up. But in the past few years, we really have not seen the blizzards from the days gone by. And by blizzards, I mean blizzards - strong winds, heavy snows, and snow days. I remember one winter, we missed close to ten days of school because of snow. One such school year, we had to make up a school day on Saturday! That's how many snow days we racked up. And although schools still close down because of this kind of weather, they usually open right back up the next day. We had bad storms in the past that would close down school for two straight days. Doesn't seem to happen that much anymore.

I remember one snow storm that was particularly severe. Our high school boy's varsity basketball team was competing in the regional tournament up in Marquette one day in March of 1997. We had an old fashioned blizzard going on, but despite the bad weather, we still had school, all because of the basketball game that evening. For some reason they couldn't postpone the game so they decided to hold school. When it was time for us to leave for the game, the weather was really nasty. My parents were deciding whether it was a good idea to even go, but I was rather insistent on going. So my dad and I traveled out on the roads. It wasn't a very good idea for us to go and we quickly found that out along the way. We experienced a heavy, blinding snow and frequent white-out conditions. Even part of the highway just south of the city had to be closed off because of the dangerous driving conditions. My dad found an alternative route to where the game was being played and we got to the gymnasium on time. But, because of the road closure, the basketball team was a good 45 minutes to an hour late. The wind was really involved in that storm and I knew afterwards it wasn't such a good idea to risk our lives just for some basketball game (especially one where we got hammered!). That stormy situation is one I will never forget.

The winter of 2006-07 is quickly coming to a close, yet that doesn't mean we won't see our fair share of snow and cold until spring finally starts to set in. April can be a rather snowy month around here, too. Judging from the way our winter started with a snow cover finally establishing itself around January 13th, I have a feeling we may end up paying for our unusual late start to winter early on. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.