Snowplow in Appleton Jan. 9, 2024. PC: Fox 11 Online
BROWN COUNTY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — With three bouts of winter weather expected through this weekend, road crews in Northeast Wisconsin are gearing up.
“We started getting our trucks ready. Making sure all our blades are good. Grease, oil. Then, we’ve just been monitoring it right now,” said Mike Piacenti, Brown County Highway Department operations manager.
Municipalities in Northeast Wisconsin have had to battle a salt shortage this winter. The Brown County Highway Department is no exception.
“It was definitely a concern with how many storms we had in December and January. We should have enough salt to get through without having to go and pick up our reserves,” said Piacenti.
Before the area sees snowfall, one challenge the Brown County Highway Department faces is rain Tuesday evening.
“We can’t do really any pre-treating today, nor have we. It’s supposed to be rain first, and with that, any pre-treatment we put down is just going to get washed off,” said Piacenti.
As of Tuesday evening, projections show multiple chances of snow throughout the week.
“Whether it’s two inches or two feet of snow, it doesn’t really matter. We attack the storm the same way,” said Piacenti.
After the snow has fallen, flooding could present the next challenge.
“Things like snowpack, lake and river levels, the rainfall amount, soil saturation and frost and ice thickness all contribute to where flooding will occur and how much flooding will occur,” said Brown County Emergency Management Director Dan Kane.
“Luckily, we’ve had quite a bit of the frost removed from the ground in this last week or so. But when you have a lot of frost in the ground and all the sudden get a quick warm-up, that usually presents the most chances for flooding,” said Piacenti.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, 18% of weather-related crashes from 2019 to 2023 were due to freezing precipitation. The study also showed from 2019 to 2023, freezing precipitation caused 13% of weather-related injuries and 11% of weather-related fatalities.
Piacenti says it’s important to slow down and leave room for plows.
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