By ETHAN SCOTT
The late season snowstorm that blanketed campus Wednesday sent BYU grounds crews home for the day and caused power outages to parts of campus.
Brent Davis, systems operations manager for Provo City Power, said the blackout that affected parts of northwest Provo is typical of a weather-related outage.
“Most likely, it is weather related, but we could not find a specific cause,” he said.
Provo City Power was able to restore power to the blacked-out areas after 22 minutes.
While the storm caused extra activity for electrical workers, many campus grounds crews were sent home for the day.
The forced vacation set back crews that were struggling to catch up on mowing more than 250 acres of grass, but landscaping on campus weathered the storm relatively unscathed, said Roy Peterman, BYU grounds director.
Peterman said the delay in lawn mowing was the worst effect of the storm. Lawn crews missed their second day of mowing in a row due to weather Wednesday.
The longer the grass gets, the harder grounds crews will have to work to get the job done, Peterman said.
“We might as well be bailing hay,” he said.
Combined with a lack of wind, the snowfall wasn’t heavy enough to damage tree branches. But the blanket of snow actually helped protect flowers on campus, Peterman said.
The flowers that are blooming on campus are varieties hardy enough to withstand cold weather, he said. Summer plants are typically not put out until May 15.
Snowfall in early May is not uncommon in Provo, but this much accumulation is, said Clark Christensen, an associate professor in the Physics and Astronomy epartment who teaches a meteorology class.
“Today’s accumulation is a substantial one for May,” he said.
Christensen estimated that Provo gets snow in May one half to one third of the time.
Wednesday’s snowstorm was particularly potent because of a weather pattern that usually affects other parts of the state.
“This snow we’re getting today is unusual in that we’re getting lake effect from the Great Salt Lake,” Christensen said.
The lake effect normally dumps snow in Salt Lake, Tooele and Davis counties — areas north of Provo. Wednesday winds carried the effect farther south.
“It’s a very common effect, but it almost always affects one of the counties to the north of us,” Christensen said.
The lake effect is caused when cold, moist air is blown over warmer water. Clouds form and dump precipitation over nearby areas, Christensen said.
