THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 17, 1996 TAG: 9603180184
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY W. BROWN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 118 lines
March 20 never looked so good.
That's the first day of spring. Yes, spring - a new season that, like a life buoy, could pull us away from one of the wackiest winters in recent memory.
This was a roller-coaster winter. One day we'd be skating on the Boardwalk, and the next we'd be sledding down Mount Trashmore.
Those erratic changes didn't happen just once - or even twice. In February, every other weekend brought us either rain, ice, sleet or snow.
The result was the frustration of being jerked around by Mother Nature. Plans had to be changed and habits broken. Cabin fever, with its side effects of boredom and anxiety, was rampant.
``It's been extremely frustrating,'' said Marc McCoy, manager at the Ocean View Golf Course in Norfolk.
The weather affected both golfers and employees, McCoy said. He hoped spring is more than a notation on the calendar.
But golfers are in the habit of adjusting, he said.
``In this business, that's all part of it,'' he said about Mother Nature. ``All we can do is work with her and hope she deals us a good hand.''
Hugh Cobb, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Wakefield, said the Norfolk area had 19 inches of snow this winter. Since January, 9.79 inches of rain has fallen, which is above normal, he said.
``We're talking about a fairly cold and snowy winter,'' he said.
Spring in Hampton Roads usually brings average temperatures in the upper 50s to the upper 60s.
But before you get your hopes up, listen to Cobb's preview of spring: below-normal temperatures and above-average rainfall.
On the other hand, long-range forecasts can be chancy.
Anything will be better than the three major punches and a slap we got from winter. The rough stuff started Saturday, Jan. 6, when near-blizzard conditions coated the region with nearly a foot of snow, sleet and rain.
That weekend, a series of underground explosions, fueled by natural gas in electric-cable tunnels, plunged downtown Norfolk into darkness. When Monday arrived, many office buildings were still without power. By Tuesday, the lights were on again.
That power outage was minor, compared with the storm on Friday, Feb. 2. This ice storm coated power lines and tree limbs, and about 138,000 homes were without electricity - some for days. The ice storm was followed by a half-foot of snow the next day.
Two Fridays later, on Feb. 16, winter struck again, at the evening rush hour. Two to four inches of snow and sleet created massive traffic jams.
One commuter needed nearly 70 minutes to travel from the Port Norfolk section of Portsmouth to work in downtown Norfolk, a usual 10-minute trip. Another man languished in traffic from 4:20 to 7, to reach his Virginia Beach home on Little Neck Road from downtown Norfolk. That trip usually takes 25 minutes.
Then, on the weekend of March 8 and 9, record lows and a light dusting of snow contributed to about 70 auto accidents on icy bridges and roadways in South Hampton Roads and on the Peninsula. The mercury dipped to 20 on March 9 - four degrees below the record for that date.
The statewide cleanup from all the winter storms cost the Virginia Department of Transportation about $100 million; $43.5 million had been budgeted.
Bob Spieldenner, a VDOT spokesman, said the department will now determine what projects can be delayed, postponed or dropped.
``We're hoping there's not going be another storm,'' Spieldenner said. So is VDOT worker Raymond Allen Daughtrey Jr., 42, of Suffolk.
All winter, he kept thinking, ``Will it ever stop?''
It seemed as if one sanding/scraping detail ended just as another nasty storm hit.
On Jan. 29, his wife gave birth to their fourth child, a boy. But Daughtrey's 12-hour shifts kept him from spending much time with his new son.
The extra hours paid off.
``All of it was overtime,'' said Daughtrey, with a certain tone of satisfaction.
Now the 20-year VDOT veteran is ready for spring so he can spend more time with his family and his garden.
As elsewhere in Hampton Roads, the winter storms stripped limbs from the numerous pine trees at Norfolk Botanical Garden, said Bill Binnie, director of horticulture and facilities.
``Unfortunately we have some plant collections beneath trees,'' he said. ``Some of the collections that are disfigured can be saved.''
Several of the garden's camellia collections were damaged. And the cold delayed the show of some daffodils and early magnolias about a week.
Students missed a lot of school as a result of the relentless weather. School officials had a hard time scheduling make-up days.
Solutions varied.
For example, Chesapeake students, who missed six days, were scheduled for classes on several Saturdays, teacher work days and an additional day at the end of the school year. Portsmouth officials simply tacked 15 minutes on the end of each day for the rest of the school year.
At the Virginia Beach Oceanfront, Don Drew, owner of Corner 24 Surf Shop, recalls the ups and downs of being in business then.
As soon as the weather would break, he said, customers kept him busy renting and selling in-line skates.
``It was like day and night,'' Drew said. ``One day you're standing looking at your feet and the next there's 100 people in the shop.''
It was, he said, the worst winter in the seven years he has been in business.
``No doubt about it everybody's antsy to get outside,'' he said. ``You can't do anything about the weather. . . . You roll with the punches. It's not worth brooding about.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
BETH BERGMAN/The Virginian-Pilot
Camille Chapman of Norfolk writes in her journal during a balmy
afternoon Friday at the Norfolk Botanical Garden.
Graphic
WINTER'S EXPENSE
The statewide cleanup from all the winter storms cost the
Virginia Department of Transportation about
$100 million; $43.5 million had been budgeted.
by CNB