City debuts tracker showing what streets have been plowed throughout Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls will debut a new snow alert tracker as the city's streets department clears the roads this week of yet another severe winter storm.

The tracker will go live when a snow alert is called in the city, as is expected to occur sometime later Wednesday. Vehicle trackers attached to plows, sanders and motor graders will update the map showing whether specific roads have been plowed, or whether they're in the process of being cleared.

The tracker is not quite real-time, said Street Operations Manager Dustin Hansen, and operates on a one- to two-hour delay of where the vehicles have been.

The storm, which placed Sioux Falls and surrounding areas under a blizzard warning from Wednesday morning to midday Thursday, was expected to bring anywhere from 9 to 17 inches of total snow accumulation to southeastern South Dakota, the warning states.

'Here we go again'

“There’s a song out there that goes, 'Here we go again,'" Hansen said as he spoke about the ongoing storm at a Wednesday morning press conference.

Plow operators have been out since Tuesday, working 12-hour shifts, and will likely continue doing so through Sunday or even Monday, he said.

Plows will be clearing emergency routes until it stops snow, and while a snow alert will be called later today, drifting snow on emergency routes means it could be some time until crews get to residential areas.

More:Wind chills expected to drop well below zero, creating dangerous conditions after blizzard

Hansen said more than 20,000 loads of snow have been hauled out of the city so far this winter, and hoped warming temperatures down the road would help them out in that regard.

And once snow pickup is complete, Hansen assured the public, they'll get right back to fixing potholes.

Lt. Andrew Siebenborn, with the Sioux Falls Police Department, encouraged the public to stay home unless there was a real need to travel, noting he "made it exactly probably about 11 feet to the end of my driveway before I got stuck with my squad car" in a snow drift.

He also asked residents ensure their cars were off the streets once the snow alert begins, stating towing or ticketing cars only lengthens the process of responding to the storm.

Siebenborn said there had been a number of complaints about streets narrowed by snow becoming even harder to navigate as people parked cars on both sides of them.

While he said there's not much the department can do, Siebenborn asked residents to try to ensure they were leaving room for traffic when parking their vehicles.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Sioux Falls will debut a snow alert tracker during Wednesday's storm