This video was typical of the snowplowing on my rural road a15-20 years after this video was made when I was growing upon the shoulder of the Tug Hill Plateau lake effect snow area east of Lake Ontario, NY. In my time we had even larger heavier OShkosh built snowplows, still used in the area today. Those big plows would hit big snow drifts crossing the road, which, like in the video caused them to come to a complete stop, then they would back up for another run to blast through the drifts, in what was called "bucking" to get through the huge snow drifts. Even taller drifts were attacked with giant rotary spinning auger snow blowers literally making open tunnels to open the road, which sometimes struck disabled abandoned vehicles buried under the deep snow covering the road. Making quite the mess of things. There is no youthful exaggeration in ths or several other available Tug Hill snow videos taken at the time.
I haven't seen such heavy snows on the road since the 1960 – early1970’s, possibly because of more frequent efficient plowing on the most vulnerable exposed roads, partially possibly due to temporarily changing weather patterns. But the several extremely heavy lake effect events so far this year may be a return to the old days.
My then future father-in-law was one of those Oshkosh drivers who would get going at 3:00 AM to open the roads for school busses, farmers delivering milk, and people driving to work for the day. He had some interesting stories of his years behind the blades. Sometimes if the heavy snow hit during late in the school say, village residents would open their homes for school kids to spend the night. Our school district was allowed a total of just five "snow days" each year, but it had to be snowing pretty hard in the early morning for that to happen. If more days were needed, we would lose those days from spring break week to make up for lost time.
I haven't seen such heavy snows on the road since the 1960 – early1970’s, possibly because of more frequent efficient plowing on the most vulnerable exposed roads, partially possibly due to temporarily changing weather patterns. But the several extremely heavy lake effect events so far this year may be a return to the old days.
My then future father-in-law was one of those Oshkosh drivers who would get going at 3:00 AM to open the roads for school busses, farmers delivering milk, and people driving to work for the day. He had some interesting stories of his years behind the blades. Sometimes if the heavy snow hit during late in the school say, village residents would open their homes for school kids to spend the night. Our school district was allowed a total of just five "snow days" each year, but it had to be snowing pretty hard in the early morning for that to happen. If more days were needed, we would lose those days from spring break week to make up for lost time.
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