By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Road crews kept busy pushing snow as two snow storms dumped more than five inches of snow on the area.

Buchanan County Western District Commissioner, Ron Hook, says there has to be at least three inches of snow on the ground for him to send the snow plows out.

“But getting the big trucks out with just a small amount of snow like that really damages our roads and, really, it damages our plows. It’s just not good on it,” Hook explains to host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “The heavier the snow, the more snow, is better for it.”

Western District snow plow drivers went out Monday, then resumed plowing Tuesday morning as did crews for the City of St. Joseph and the Missouri Department of Transportation. There could be some more snow fall, but little accumulation is expected, according to the National Weather Service, which has forecast only flurries for today.

As for the county, Hook says his crews approach snow removal with a strategy to hit the most populated areas first.

“The town of Faucet, DeKalb, Rushville, Lewis and Clark Village. Obviously, the Air Guard is one of our, the Western District’s, priorities, along with Maxwell Heights,” Hook says. “We try to hit the heavily populated areas that we know people are going to be in and out a lot more and more active.”

Hook says he hears praise and complaints from residents during snow storms.

“We hear from both. We hear people calling in and thanking us for getting it done so early,” Hooks says. “We hear complaints, too. That’s okay. That’s all part of the job and we try to address those complaints as quick as possible.”

It will be a while before we are done with all this.

The National Weather Service has issued no less than three separate advisories. A Cold Weather Advisory remains in effect until midnight when it changes into an Extreme Cold Weather Advisory. An Extreme Cold Weather Advisory is issued by NWS when wind chills could approach 30-below. Tonight could see the harshest temperature with a low of -13 expected.

The Weather Service has issued a Hazardous Weather Outlook for northwest, north-central and west-central Missouri as well as extreme eastern Kansas.

You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.