(image: courtesy Wright County)
The past two winters were among the mildest in several years, but at least so far, the winter of ’25-’26 has been very busy for Wright County’s highway maintenance crews.
The December 28th storm dropped a little more than six inches of snow. In a typical year, we see around 16 inches of snow before New Year’s Day. This year before the first of the year, we have received around 24 inches. For comparison, last year we got 32 inches of snow for the entire season.
Another difference so far this year has been several freezing rain and drizzle events. Those conditions alone force highway crews to treat, and in some cases, pre-treat the more than 500 miles of county-owned roads in the system.
Officials say last winter, there were 32 snow and ice events that required road maintenance. Of those, 14 required early call-ins for plow drivers, around 2 AM, to attack the snow and ice prior to a morning commute. This year, from the first snow-ice event in November until December 31st, there have already been 24 events that required plows to perform maintenance, including 20 days that required early call-ins. Those are some sobering numbers considering that winter officially only began a little more than two weeks ago.
Wright County motorists are reminded that if they encounter plow trucks during winter driving, to stay back and allow crews to perform the work we all need them to do to stay safe.
(content: in part, courtesy Wright County)
