SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane snow plows started running as usual during Wednesday morning’s snow storm despite issues with plow diesel fuel gelling due to extreme cold temperatures.
According to city spokesperson Kirsten Davis, crews and fleet services were assessing various snow response and solid waste collections equipment over the weekend.
Some crews noticed that diesel fuel was “gelling” due to the extremely cold temperature the Inland Northwest received over the past few days.
Davis says that this is common, the diesel fuel in your fuel tank will become like gel at a temperature of 15ºF or -9.5ºC and you will have trouble starting your engine.
Fleet services team acknowledged the issue and worked with a fuel provider throughout the weekend to manage the situation. They put additives and filters for some pieces of equipment to prevent gelling.
On Jan. 16, day shift team members were scheduled an hour early ahead of their 4 a.m. start time. All snow plows were running properly and were able to begin their routes.
Davis says, “there were some diesel fuel gelling issues due to the extreme temps over the weekend that were mitigated, [but] this did not affect today’s operations for snow response.”
Snow plows will be out on Spokane roads throughout the rest of the week. If you see one ahead of you, WSDOT wants to remind you to:
Slow down.Give road crews plenty of room to work.Don’t pass a plow, operators have limited visibility of other vehicles and may be throwing snow from either direction.Leave extra space between you and the vehicle in front of you.Give yourself extra room to stop.
