The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 3

I Bloomington-Normal, III. Jan. 28, 1977 Old Man Winter Pantagraph A-3 aA ays it on again The National Weather Service predicts northwesterly winds of 25 to 25 h. with considerable blowing and drifting of snow causing extremely harzardous driving conditions. The high temperature today is forecast at near zero, followed by a low of 10 below to 18 below Saturday.

However, the temperature is to rise a bit Saturday, with a high forecast at zero to 5 above, and the winds diminishing. Businesses, government offices and schools were closed and services were reduced in the Twin Cities. Drifting snow was making driving hazardous and closing roads. The situation was the same throughout Illinois. Gov.

James H. Thompson canceled a speaking engagement in Chicago Friday because the doors to the hangar housing his airplane in Springfield were frozen closed. Illinois Power Co. (IPC), which provides natural gas service to Clinton, Decatur, Champaign-Urbana. LaSalle.

Danville, Galesburg, Kewaneeand areas south of Springfield, issued a caution to users Friday morning. "Unless residential and commercial customers are able to control usage even more Saturday and Sunday, there is serious doubt we can continue to serve industrial gas beyond Monday." The utility recommended users turn thermostats down another two degrees and commercial customers to reduce operating hours or close. Fd Alms of Northern Illinois Gas Company in Bloomington said his company still is selling gas supplies to about a dozen other companies and that NI-Gas reserves are holding. He foresees no problems for NI-Gas customers in terms of supplies. However.

Alms said, furnaces probably will run continually with temperatures below 10 degrees below zero and still not keep inside temperatures at the termostat settings "We're in what we call the rniniis-10 zone' for heating plants," he said Furnaces are designed lor the coldest to be 10 below. An IPC spokesman in Bloomington said the company is experiencing problems in supplying electricity to its customers. Minor, temporary outages were reported in Normal. Bloomington, Kl Paso. Gridlev and I.ellov.

rolled up. Unfurled, the effect of the fence on drifting snow is a puzzle. A few basic physical laws help to explain it. (Pantagraph photo by Sue Killus) Enigmatic Snow but principle By James Keeran The Twin Cities, Central Illinois and the Midwest are digging out again from another 1.5 inches of snow that fell Thursday night and Friday morning on top of the drifted 12.6 inches that already were there. A new cold front blew in with the snow Thursday night, sending the temperature plummeting to an overnight low of 14 degrees below zero, after topping out at the 20-degree mark.

It was 8 below zero Friday noon. The snowstorm continued the crummy weather of the area's longest cold spell since 1936, when the temperature averaged 4.5 degrees for a 33-day period. This particular spell hit with a 2 below zero on Dec. 29 and has kept the mercury at an average of 9 6 since, with 16 days of below-zero readings. The 15 below zero recorded Friday morning at Illinois State University's weather station still is 2 degrees above the record low of 17 below set in 1915.

But. with wind averaging 25 to 30 miles an hour and gusting up to 50 and 60 miles an hour, the wind chill index is a bitter 80 degrees below zero. That cold and the blustering snow are causing a myriad of problems, not only for Bloomington-Normal. but for the entire state and the eastern part of the nation. In short, the weather has polarized a great portion of the country.

So bad is it. in fact, that area Boy Scouts have canceled their polar-bear campout near Lexington this weekend. And the forecast is for more of the same. Record for GenTel General Telephone Co. of Illinois was breaking all records Friday morning at its downtown Bloomington office.

Company spokesman William Sullivan said that between 8 and 9 a.m.. there were 12.847 long-distance calls placed, almost double the average of 6.600. Operator-handled calls had more than quadrupled during the same period. Normally, 400 such calls are made, and Friday morning there had been 1.850. "So far.

there's no evidence of any letup." Sullivan said. He said he hoped calls would decrease, but said school children who were home for the day would probably keep the lines busy. He reminded telephone users that calls could cause an overload on equipment and that some people wquld be unable to hear a dial tone immediately. He said callers should hold the receiver until they hear the dial tone. GenTel's management was called to work around 4:30.

and additional operators were requested about 5:30 a.m. Sullivan said the office was fully-manned in all positions. Man charged with pot possession Donald J. Borsch. 19.

whose address was not known by police, was charged at 3:50 p.m. Thursday with two counts of possession of marijuana. He was arrested by Bloomington police at the intersection of Main and Monroe streets. Borsch was taken to county jail in lieu of $1,250 bond for a Jan. 31 court appearance.

Clothing stolen A locked locker at Bloomington High' School was broken into between 9:30 a.m. and 2:40 p.m. Thursday and a $50 coat, pair of gloves and sweatshirt belonging to Joe Langhoff, 15. of 1528 W. Locust, were removed.

9w Avr JSjJfcA An unused roll of snow fence lay along the blacktop between Kappa and Kl Paso in Woodford County. The average snow fence doesn't do much good when it's fences of way on either side. That's all very interesting, but it doesn't explain why snow piles up on the wrong side of the fence or in a gully on the same side the wind's coming from. Harold Born, chairman of the physics department at Illinois State University, said he had never really considered the matter. But he devised an impromtu theory that seemed to make sense.

Compressed air Take the snow fence. It's slatted. It would seem that most of the snow would fly right through. It does. But the real difference is in "horizontal wind velocity." Born said.

As the wind goes through the fence, it speeds up for just a moment because a larger quantity of air must be compressed through a small space. As it comes out the other side, the air expands into a larger space and slows down. The heavier snow-flakes slow down faster than the surrounding air and drop to the ground. That also explains a technique used by highway engineers to prevent drifting on the newer interstates: They put ditches on either side. The air carried across the ground expands into the ditch and again slows down, causing the snow to drop into the ditch.

Slow downspeed up The same theory could apply to heavy drifting of snow on roads with banks on either side: The road cut captures the snow by allowing the air to expand and slow down in the greater space afforded it. One would also suppose this explains the following observation concerning- a road with high banks on either side: A wind from the west drops the snow mainly along the west side of the road, not along the east bank as one might expect. Again, the slow-down speed-up theory applies. The wind slows down as the air expands down the west bank, then speeds up again as the air is compressed when leaving the hollow at the east bank. There's also the problem of why county and township roads are generally more afflicted by drifting snow than the interstates are.

The interstates are safer, mainly because of the ditches, the greater amount By Jim Flannery A snow drift is a delicate natural sculpture, an impediment to cars and trucks and dogs with short legs and an affront to the common sense of every man who observes that snow drifts backwards. Take, for instance, a snow fence. There are 800 feet of snow fence along state highways in McLean County. That isn't enough to catch more than the tiniest fraction of the snow drifting across the county's highways, but it is enough for a motorist's wandering eye to see that when the wind blows from the west the snow piles up on the east side of the fence. It's something like the Great Sand Dunes of south-central Colorado.

They aren't made of snow, but the dunes (some as high as 1,500 feet) are stacked up against the west side of the Sangre De Christo Mountains. The wind that deposits the sand there comes, yes, from the opposite direction the northeast. Confusing? That isn't the half of it. Fred Mariani is a field engineer for the Illinois Department of Transportation's highway maintenance operations in McLean County. He's put up a lot of snow fences in his day.

But he says the only 100 per cent effective snow fence is the snow fence that's lined up both sides of the road every mile of the roadway. That's a lot of fence, if you intend to fence the entire 800 lane miles of state highway in McLean County. "Most of the time, we just let it blow across the highway," Mariani said. "We're better off if we don't try to stack it up." East-west roads But there are spots where it does stack up, and that's where Mariani says he puts up snow fences. He said his experience has shown that east-west roads are more susceptible to drifting, mainly because the wind in McLean County generally blows from the northwest, the southeast or the southwest.

Mariani said most of the fencing in McLean County is along Illinois highways 9, 165 and U.S. 136. Areas of those highways most likely to be fenced are those cut below ground level (with steep banks on either side), as are roads with curves (because of the guardrails) and roads with narrow rights -kit ilin -c -y 7 mma" fa h)Hf wX 1L. 1 'V3 -III f-8-? iff I I 'J? 1 puzzle, simple of flat, open right of way on either side and the large, flat expanse that the interstates themselves occupy. Mariani said.

The snow is either trapped in the diiches or blown right over the highway. The general rule of thumb is, the flatter the area the less the chance of drifting. But on some of the state highways this year, motorists might have found some places where blowing snow has been more of a problem than in previous years. Less fencing Fart of the problem is. of course, there's been more snow.

But according to Mariani. IDOT this year put out 200 feet less snow fence in McLean County than last year. The reason for that, he said, has been "budgetary." meaning the department is operating this year on pared-down funds. It also means that some highway engineers in the department feel that drifting snow is more economically handled with snow plows than with snow fences. A six-man crew can install between 1.200 and 1.800 feet of snow fence in a day.

Mariani said. But with the crew-must come two dump trucks to haul men and equipment, a tractor loader to. handle the fence, plus wire twister tools, wooden stakes, post-hole drivers, pliers and chains to stretch the fence. It is still a matter of controversy among highway engineers whether all that is worth what the motorist gains from the snow fence, Mariani said. Both sides of road Under "ideal conditions," a snow-fence is very effective, Mariani said.

But if the fence is on one side of the road and the wind comes from the other, the fence is virtually useless, he said. So the highway department still relies mainly on snow plows to handle problems of drifting snow, Mariani said. "We're generally going to have the vehicles (the plows) out there anyway, he said, "so if we get some drifting, they can take care of it." Salt trucks, too. are part of the highway maintenance crews' arsenal. But Mariani said that salt on some of the flatter stretches of the interstate where snow blows right across is "more a problem than a help." The picture was taken at 9:30 a.m.

Friday on Business Loop 55. Traffic, what little there was, was at a snail's pace. Winds blew new-fallen snow up to Visibility, drifts make driving dangerous An old gate stands sentry to a windswept field east of Bloomington, having given way to the elements of a season called winte that has long outstayed its wel come. (Pantagraph photo) enough to know how to keep their vehicle on the road. County highways were also closed, according to Highway Supt.

Herbert Bekermeier. He said county plow trucks which were operating weren't plowing, but had been sent to help other plows which were stuck. He said the trucks wouldn't be sent to attempt to clear county roads until the wind died down because "it's just I don't think people really realize how bad it is." "We hope to have them open by early evening, but it's going to depend on the wind." During the early morning, he said, there was "quite a bit of traffic" on the roads which were open. State police at Pontiac were telling anyone who called to stay put. "The squads are all tied up and the plows can't move," a spokesman said.

Two fire trucks reportedly crashed while attempting to reach a fire at a machine shed at Oroya, four miles north of Chenoa. Two firemen were injured. Asked if any traffic was moving on 1-55 in front of the headquarters station, the state police spokesman said he rouldn't tell because a six-foot snow drift was blinking his view. rvi inrri v-wiw yuu. By Mark Spencer The message for travelers Friday morning was blunt: Don't travel unless you have to.

Bloomington-Normal's major thoroughfares were open, but highways were generally closed. The Illinois Department of Transportation's Bloomington division reported: Interstate 74 clear across the county. Interstate 55 open between the south county line and Lexington, where jack-knifed semitrailer trucks were blocking both north- and southbound lanes. Illinois 9 had one lane open to Danvers, but was closed to the east. U.S.

51 was blocked in both directions. U.S. 150 was open in one lane to U.S. 136, but was blocked west of Bloomington. U.S.

24 was blocked across the county. Even on the highways which were open, visibility was a major problem because of blowing snow. Drivers said visibility was limited to a car-length at times. Most drivers could see no more than 20 feet or so ahead. The result was that drivers on relatively clear roads couldn't see far 4.

SP 3 Exfremely hazardous 50 m.p.h., seriously reducing visibility and producing extremely hazardous driving conditions. (Pantagraph photo by Bob Ringham).