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Snowplow drivers get no holiday By BILL KETTLER Mail Tribune Mountain snow Monday forced Southern Oregon highway maintenance crews to cancel their Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Snowplow drivers worked through the day to clear roads in the Cascades and Siskiyous as the first major snowstorm in nearly three weeks dumped at least a foot of snow across most of the Cascades and nearly as much in the Siskiyous. Snow showers were expected to continue today, and forecasters were expecting intermittent mountain snow through the remainder of the week and into the weekend. "It was coming down pretty steady all day," said Shawn Stephens, maintenance coordinator at the Oregon Department of Transportation's Ashland station. Stephens and about 10 other workers put in 12-hour shifts on the King holiday, driving snowplows and de-icer trucks back and forth across the Siskiyou summit on Interstate 5. The storm blew out of the Gulf of Alaska with enough cold air to briefly push snow levels down to about 1,500 feet, garnishing the top half of Roxy Ann Peak with snow for most of the day. The storm also produced snow flurries off and on through the day in Medford, but with no accumulations. The road to the rim at Crater Lake National Park was closed to allow snow-removal crews to concentrate their energy on clearing Highway 62. "We've had two feet of snow over the past three days," said park dispatcher Jennifer Johnson. "The drifting has been a real problem. Three-foot drifts appear out of nowhere." Johnson measured 108 inches of snow at the park when she took weather observations early Monday, about 25 inches more than the average on-the-ground depth for Jan. 21. Klamath Falls had 3 inches of snow on the ground by late afternoon, and Chiloquin had received 7 inches. The heaviest rain fell on the coast at Sixes, where 2.1 inches had fallen by late afternoon. Medford received .49 inch at the National Weather Service office at the airport, and many wetter, outlying areas measured an inch or more of rain. The Cascade Range collected more snow than the Siskiyou Mountains because the storm blew in from the west. The clouds had to shed most of their moisture to cross the north-south barrier of the Cascades, but they dropped less moisture as they slid past the Siskiyous, which run east-west. "When the storms come out of the southwest, the Siskiyous are more prone to get the most snow," said Chuck Glaser, of the National Weather Service's Medford station. Glaser said cool, wet weather may well bring more snow to the mountains through the weekend. Forecasters were predicting rain and snow showers on the valley floor today and Wednesday, and a brief drying interval Thursday, with rain and snow again likely Friday through Sunday. Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.