Back in the record snowfalls of the 70's, the NPS usually had one of their two rotary plows cannibalized to keep the other running. The push plows were surplus 5-ton dump trucks that the Navy had given up on. I estimated that the Paradise gate opening at Longmire took one hour past 9am for each six inches of new snow and the gate did not open about 25 times each winter.
Now, with much more powerful equipment and a park staff that has doubled in size, opening Paradise seems to take about an hour past 9am for each 2-3 inches new. Early afternoon closures are becoming common and a Winter Storm Warning is apparently reason enough to stay closed for days at a time...
I did a quick calculus of Paradise gate opening times on Twitter. So far in December, it was opened to the public on 12 of 23 days. Half of those days had a early (3pm) closure. Four days without new snow opened about a half-hour early; The remaining eight day's opening time ranged from 9am to noon, with an average about 10:30am.
Bottom line: They have opened for an average length of six hours on barely half the days in December.
With 3-5 feet of additional Paradise snow forecast by Sunday, 12-26, those stats are not likely to improve...
Last edit: 4 years 1 month ago by Gary Vogt. Reason: typo
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