Light snow flurries provide easy 'warm-up' for road-clearing crews across Columbus

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- While Monday's weather with on-and-off snow showers was not a major event, it was enough to have crews with the city of Columbus' Department of Public Service out for most of the day.

“It is anticipated to not be citywide or region-wide, really more isolated events, so we’ll be patrolling those areas and responding as needed," said Scott Tourville, infrastructure management administrator for the public service department.

The department started preparing for the colder months over the summer. Tourville said because what rolled through Monday was not a severe weather event, it served as a good way for employees to ease into the season.

“This is a great warm-up event as opposed to last year," he said. "The first snow we got was the storm right around the Christmas holiday, and that was a very significant storm with heavy, heavy winds and brutally cold temperatures," he said.

Several of the city's trucks were loaded up with road salt around lunch time. Tourville said the city has about 30,000 tons of salt on hand, which is more than is usually used in an entire season.

"No concerns on materials, no concerns on staffing, no concerns on fleet, we are ready to go," he said.

People who braved the cold on walks Monday also said they will be ready for winter weather.

“I love winter. Especially this time, December, it's the first snow of the season. It's much easier to take in and enjoy versus maybe February, March -- it gets a little bit of an overkill at that point," Ellyn Briggs said.