Features
Herald archives: Winter blows in
On Fridays, the Clinton Herald takes a look back at the Gateway area. This article is from Dec. 12, 2000.
CLINTON — That white Christmas some Clinton-area residents were dreaming about came a couple of weeks early.
Monday’s major winter storm, the first of the season, dumped anywhere from 8 to 10 inches across the Gateway-area. Cold winds of 25 to 35 mph then blew the dry, powdery snow across roads, making travel very treacherous, while contributing to dangerously cold wind chills.
Virtually all schools and colleges in the area canceled classes Monday, while many businesses, libraries and governmental agencies decided to close early. Many area schools decided to cancel today’s classes, some as early as Monday afternoon. Even the Mississippi Belle II Riverboat Casino closed early, while many meetings were canceled or postponed.
Officially, Clinton received 8.8 inches of snow, according to Jim Blaess, official weather observer with the U.S. government. He said Monday’s 24-hour snowfall was the most for December since Dec. 3, 1990, when 12 inches fell.
According to the National Weather Service (NWS), the first snowflakes fell around 10:30 p.m. Sunday and they didn’t let up until early Monday evening.
Though near blizzard-like conditions appeared at times, actual blizzard conditions never prevailed, according to NWS Meteorologist Jim Hladik. A storm must have sustained winds of at least 35 mph and have considerable falling and/or blowing snow with visibility near zero, according to the NWS.
“We had such a cold arctic air mass so the snowflakes were kind of a small, powdery-like snow,” he said. “It doesn’t get picked up easily like the larger flakes.”
City street and county road crews across the area plowed snow-drifted streets. Clinton County crews were out at 5 a.m. to clear snow from the county’s roads.
“As far as we know, everything’s going good … getting the roads opened up,” said Greg Oldsen of the Clinton County Road Department.
Crews with Clinton’s Streets Department were still on the job today, busily plowing open streets. They’ve been on the job since late Sunday.
“Once the snow stopped and the wind died down, things went pretty efficiently,” said Clinton Public Works Director Jim Haag.
A “snow emergency” for Clinton remained in effect this morning, according to Acting City Administrator Bruce Johansen. Residents are still required to park on the even-numbered side of the street if their streets have not been plowed, he said.
Area grocery and hardware stores kept busy until mid-afternoon, as residents were shopping for groceries and winter supplies.
“It was mostly bread, milk, cereals — anything to get them by,” said Scott Mullison, assistant manager at Hy-Vee Grocery Store.
A manager at Paul’s Discount, 1940 Lincoln Way, said many customers purchased items such as snow shovels, salt, sand tubes and winter clothing.
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