January 10, 2014

Winter swept into St. Louis on Dec. 5th starting with scattered sleet and freezing rain before turning to snow and piling up close to 4″ in parts of the metro.  Since then, Mother Nature has dealt the entire metro blow after blow, culminating with the record breaking snows that started last weekend.

To make matters worse, January’s snow has been accompanied by extremely cold temperatures, resulting in even more headaches for anyone involved in snow removal.  The January 5th event was the second coldest snow event, that exceeded 10 inches, in St. Louis history.

Challenge:

The cost to keep Lambert-St. Louis International Airport’s runways plowed and operational during winter snow storms can seem astronomical; however, the costs could be much higher if not for the use of services provided by Weather or Not, a private weather service based in Shawnee, Kansas.

According to Bill Korte, Assistant Director of Operations and Maintenance at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, “Our cost for outside contract plowing crews is $12,000 per hour [during a snowfall event].” Korte points out that the contract crews are necessary to augment their staff efforts to keep the airport open for the public’s travel convenience and so the airport can generate revenue.

Solution:

For the past nine years, Lambert-St. Louis International Airport has relied exclusively on Weather or Not. Korte said that the forecast data and information Weather or Not provides is invaluable for their daily operations and is critical during snow storms. He also explained that public forecasts commonly available are too broad and weather conditions can vary widely across a large metropolitan area like St. Louis.

Korte discussed the massive blizzard that blanketed and paralyzed much of the Midwest and the State of Missouri on February 1, 2011. “The broadcast media and public weather outlets forecast 18-20” of snow for the entire St. Louis metro. Those forecasters also said it would start snowing nearly 24-hours earlier than it actually did. If we had relied on those forecasts, we would have scheduled and paid contract work crews to wait for hours that they didn’t actually work. Weather or Not’s forecast correctly told us that the airport would only receive about 6” of snow. And, they told us almost to the hour when the snow would begin,” Korte said. “So, we saved thousands of dollars because we knew when to schedule the contract work crews to show up!”

Result:

The beneficial labor savings to the airport exceeded $250,000 for this blizzard event because the airport had reliable weather information to make good business decisions.

Korte also said that the airport uses Weather or Not services year round. “We have to know if and when it is going to rain before we pour expensive concrete or apply asphalt patches. And, We utilize Weather or Not’s forecasts and mobile weather alerts to insure the safety of our crews.” Korte remarked, “We trust Weather or Not to give us accurate weather information so we can do our jobs; and, trust is very important to us.”

Congratulations to Kansas City International Airport crews who kept the airport open during blizzard conditions and Westwood Public Works who managed to clear roads with only a crew of 3.