TRAVERSE CITY -- Colin Ford shoveled scoop after scoop of fresh white snow from the long walkway in front of his family's Traverse City home.
Clearing the walkway required time, effort and careful footing on slick ground. But Ford, a Traverse City Central High School student, had no complaints about the thick layer of snow as he methodically shoveled his way toward the street Monday morning.
"I love it, man," he said with a grin. "It got me out of school today."
The first major storm of the season dumped between 6 and 10 inches of snow on the Grand Traverse region from Sunday evening into Monday morning. The winter blast shuttered most local school districts and created sloppy driving conditions throughout the area.
"Especially in the early part of the storm, we had a lot of wet, heavy snow in there; the temps were initially a lot warmer," said Jeff Lutz, a Gaylord-based National Weather Service meteorologist. "As the storm has gone on, cold air has really started to flood in, and that helped get it closer to the fluffier, lake-effect type of snow."
Wind gusts up to 20 miles per hour whipped the snow around area roadways Sunday night and early Monday, creating visibility problems in some spots. Wet snow also clung to street signs, obscured traffic lights and plastered buildings.
The area should get "sort of a break" from snow through today, Lutz said, but lake-effect snow is expected to pick back up again Wednesday and Thursday.
Grand Traverse Road Commission Manager Mary Gillis said a full corps of drivers worked on county roads since Sunday afternoon trying to keep up with the mess.
"It's pretty much continuous with a storm like this," she said. "We throw everything we have at it ... everyone that can work has been working."
The commission received e-mail and telephone complaints about sloppy roads, and Gillis said such complaints are frequent during most large storms. The commission focuses on state roads and major county roads first.
"Basically, our response is we're out there, we're (covering) everything based on our priority system," she said. "It's just going to take some time."
Traverse City Area Public Schools made the call to close at about 4 a.m. Monday, Superintendent James Feil said. The district opts to close on a case-by-case basis, Feil said, rather than once a certain amount of snow falls.
"There isn't any hard, fast rule, other than we're obviously looking at safety," Feil said.
U.S. Postal Service letter carrier Bob Seppla stepped out of his boxlike mail truck near the Blue Goat wine shop on East Front Street Monday morning with a handful of envelopes. Winter routes are a bit tricky because mail trucks don't get the best traction on slick roads, Seppla said, but he still welcomes the season.
"I've always enjoyed working out in the blizzards," he said. "It's kind of fun."
Those blizzards sometimes present significant hazards for Seppla, who spends most of his time trudging through the snow on foot. He arms himself with "layers and good, wide boots," but also looks to local residents for help.
"It sure would be nice if people would at least shovel their steps off," he said.
There was a time when Traverse City resident Richard Easterle liked winter a lot more.
"It used to be ... my favorite season, because I cross-country ski," he said. "But that was in the '70s when I was in my 20s. Obviously with age, it gets harder with removal of it and keeping it under control."
But Easterle said he still enjoys the peace and calm of winter. So does Wayne Barber, 72, who moved to the area from downstate about 25 years ago. Since then he's been choosy about his vehicles.
"When we moved up here, that was it: four-wheel drive," he said as he fueled up at the Mutual Service Station on Front Street in Traverse City. "It's no fun living here if you can't deal with the elements."
Grand Traverse County dispatchers said Monday afternoon they'd handled about three times the number of traffic crashes they normally would, although no significant injuries were reported.
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