Weather

Weather, traffic closes several southbound routes in Nevada

The Nevada Department of Transportation has closed southbound Interstate 11/U.S. Highway 93 from Boulder City to Kingman, Arizona.

Heavy snowfall and a 22-mile vehicle backup are the cause for the closure, which begins at mile marker 2 in Boulder City.

Northwest Arizona received about a foot of snow overnight.

NDOT suggests drivers use an alternative route of U.S. Highway 95 to Interstate 40.

At Primm, southbound traffic is being diverted off Interstate 15. California Highway Patrol is closing the roadway from the Nevada state line to Baker, California. CHP said on Twitter that drivers should be prepared for ice and snow in the Mountain Pass area.

State Route 164, Nipton Road, is closed in both directions at U.S. Highway 95 in Searchlight due to heavy snow conditions. An alternative route is U.S. 95 southbound to I-40 then west to Barstow, California.

For the latest on highway conditions in Nevada, go to nvroads.com or call 511.

Winter weather puts damper on business for local restaurants

The forecast keeps making Jesse Sauerbrei flinch.

Of course, he’s not alone, as storm after storm has dumped snow and ice on the region, not to mention the bitter cold that was the polar vortex. But for Sauerbrei, the concerns are more than running out of ice melt or missed school days; for him and many other small-business owners in the state, bad weather means bad business.

Sauerbrei owns Lincoln Wine Bar in Mount Vernon. Specializing in wood-fired pizzas, he relies on customers who drive in from Cedar Rapids and Iowa City for the bulk of his sales.

“We’re pretty much a destination joint. When the weather is like this, you know people are going to travel out of town less,” he said. “This is the worst first quarter we’ve had since I bought the place five years ago. It’s been tough.”

The weather has hit restaurants especially hard. While people flock to grocery stores for staples such as bread and milk, they can choose to forgo eating out when the snow is falling.

“We’ve had reservations canceled, or people not show up. Nobody is out in general,” said Matt Melone, co-owner and chef of Cedar Rapids restaurant Pig & Porter. “The consensus is, from talking to friends in the (restaurant) industry, this winter has been pretty awful from the month of January on. I can’t remember a winter like this.”

He said January was the worst month of sales the restaurant has had since it opened in July 2016. That was compounded when a broken hood system forced them to close the first week of February. After reopening, they posted on Facebook, promoting a night when they asked fans to come in and pack the restaurant.

“We depend on guests and customers to make it work,” Melone said. “You can’t expect everybody to come into my business. But I think if people are going to go out, they should make a conscious effort to support local businesses. That stuff does matter.”

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Social media calls can only go so far, however. During one of the season’s first snow storms, Lincoln Wine Bar promoted a discount on pizzas tied to the snowfall — for every inch it snowed, the restaurant would knock a dollar off the price of a pizza. Only a few people took advantage of the offer, Sauerbrei said.

That has a ripple effect. He has less people working most nights and is ordering less food and alcohol from his suppliers.

“Your employees aren’t making the money they depend on,” he said. “There’s just less money going around for everybody.”

Not every business has been able to weather the storms. Aurora Coffee Co., with locations in Marion and Lindale Mall, will close March 1. The coffee shop, which opened near Linn-Mar High School in October 2016, has been hit hard by the season.

“It just killed our sales,” co-owner Aurora Moes said. “Having to be closed — and school being closed as well, it took away a lot of our customers.”

She said the business was already struggling, but the winter weather was the last straw. She even tried offering a new service where baristas would deliver drinks to customers’ cars so people wouldn’t have to get out of their vehicles. It wasn’t enough.

“We couldn’t make rent, and we couldn’t make our loan payment. I had to make a decision,” she said. “I feel sad. This was a dream of mine, and it was my passion.”

Many in the restaurant industry already operate on thin margins, and Sauerbrei said he’s counting every dollar.

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Even if it’s just him behind the bar and one other employee making pizzas, he tries to open even in the worst weather.

“If it’s only going to be a $200 night, I need that. You have to do it because you need that $200 in sales. And then you think, ‘Oh, wow, we haven’t made one pizza for an hour,’” he said.

Still, he has hope that once spring comes, things will bounce back. Until then?

“We’re all Iowans. We’ve seen this weather before. There’s no reason to stay inside. Be safe, but go and support your local businesses,” he said. “Go eat pizza at a locally-owned pizza joint. It doesn’t even have to be mine.”

l Comments: (319) 398-8339; alison.gowans@thegazette.com

Pittsburgh Weather: Area Sees Snowiest Day Of Season, Record Daily Rainfall On Same Day

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Wednesday’s snow and rain was one for the record books.

The Pittsburgh total for rain yesterday, 0.86 inches, sets a new record for daily rain for Feb. 20. The old record, set in 1898, was 0.68 inches.

Pittsburgh also saw the snowiest day of the season so far with 4.2 inches of snow recorded. Thankfully, the area had few problems due to freezing rain and drizzle.

(Photo Credit: KDKA)

Yesterday’s temperature perfectly sums up the craziness of the day. Wednesday’s high was only 37 degrees. By 2 a.m. on Thursday, temperatures had pushed into the 40s.

WEATHER LINKS:Current Conditions | School Delays & Closings | Local Radar | Weather App | Photos

So what’s next?

The overall pattern through the weekend is one of warmth. It’s also a pattern that, if sustained for any significant amount of time, will lead to a high chance of heavy rains. High pressure is stationed over the Florida Panhandle and Georgia. This ridge will push warm winds to the north. The Arctic Jet is still well north of our area for now, so weekend precipitation is expected to come in the way of just rain.

For today, highs will be back in the mid- to upper-40s. Expect sunshine this afternoon. Highs will be in the mid- to upper-40s on Friday too, with cloudy weather back.

If you’re out and about on Saturday and want to stay dry, you will want to grab the umbrella. Spot rain showers through the day are expected. Sunday will have a chance for a couple of weak thunderstorms just ahead of a cool front. Post front wind speeds up to 45 mph are possible so get ready for that.

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