Snow plow operators and snow removal companies are prepping for a few long days ahead as another winter storm barrels down on Minnesota and the Twin Cities.
Snow started to move into western Minnesota on Wednesday morning and up to ten inches of light, fluffy snow could fall in spots according to WCCO Radio meteorologist Paul Douglas.
Joe Mather, owner of Joe's Lawn and Snow in Richfield, said getting ready for a winter storm actually starts weeks in advance.
"There's a lot of work to get ready for snow," Mather said. "It sometimes takes two weeks to get ready. Whether it's switching things over, fixing and greasing things, or filling things up and all that stuff."
Mather, who's been in the commercial and residential snow removal industry for 35 years, oversees snow removal at 180 locations in the Twin Cities.
He along with the nine employees at Joe's Lawn and Snow will likely get started late Wednesday evening.
"I try to get my guys to do 6 to 8 hours of work," he said. "The big snow storm where we got 8.4 inches took about 9 hours to get done. Last week's storm took quite a lot longer because it was wet, it was heavy, and it didn't matter if you used a snow blower it pretty much had to be hand shoveled."
Mather updates his team of drivers about the weather throughout the day via text message. He works with a couple of private weather companies that provide weather services.
Vehicles are equipped with a number of tools including GPS, two-way radios, route sheets, and Mather's trying to update route sheets to tablets.
"Everybody arrives ahead of time, we have a quick meeting, and we have a prayer service to make sure everybody gets out there and gets back safe to their families."
Mather said on Wednesday morning that this upcoming storm looks to present a few challenges especially with the extreme cold and high winds.
"It makes it more difficult, it takes more time, and I tell everyone to take breaks to warm-up," he said. "Wind makes the job almost impossible. You're trying to snow blow and it's all just coming back in your face. It gets tough and it gets hard. It takes a real man or woman to do this job."
