The groundhog was wrong; winter roars back in the Fargo-Moorhead area

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) – Despite the groundhog predicting an early spring, winter made its presence known Tuesday with a strong storm across the region. This has left schools, businesses and other establishments closed due to the snow and very strong winds.

Visibility became an issue as snow blew around the metro and snow drifts caused driving hazards. According to Sgt. Jesse Grabow with the Minnesota State Patrol, troopers responded to numerous calls in the western part of the state where multiple cars ran off the road and semis had jack-knifed.

Here in Fargo, Public Works are out clearing the roadways. This mild winter has been a major contrast to the last two winters, which had put a strain on the work crews.

“You know we went through some troubling times over the last two years with staffing,” said Ben Dow, the public works director for Fargo. “We’ve been able to get staffed up pretty good. Still short a few operators but this is good experience for them. It’s not pushing an eight or 12 inch snow storm, it’s a two or three incher with some wind. This is good training experience.”

Now they’ve been able to play some catch up and get some repairs done on equipment.

“Back to back winters did a lot of damage cost a lot of money to put everything back on the road. We kind of duct taped and bale wired everything together during the winter and in the off-months we put it back together.” said Dow.

If you do venture out into the roadways, here are important guidelines to remember:

• Have a travel safety kit on you
• Make sure you have plenty of gas just in case you get stuck
• Be cautious
• And give plows enough room as they clear the roads

“Slow down and drive for conditions,” said Dow. “Haven’t had a lot of winter this year and so people are not adjusted to driving in these conditions. Stay home if you can and then give our operators some extra space. That’s the big thing because a lot of times there’s blind spots and would hate to get into an accident and slow your process down and slow our process down.”

This is just another chapter to a strange winter we’ve had in the metro area.