Winter Time Operations and Snow Clearing
Since its opening Stockholm Arlanda has always managed to continue its operations during heavy snowfall and difficult weather. The airport administration claims to be world-leading at clearing snow from the runways. Arlanda has a policy to never close due to snowfall. Heavy snowfall can however cause delays. During heavy snowfall at least one runway stays open but in bad weather condition there may be delays even if flight operations continue at all times. Not just runways need to be cleared, aprons and aircraft parking areas need snow clearing as well. The airport has a total of 250 000 m2 to clear from snow and ice, at the same time as the aircraft continue taking off and landing. During the colder half of the year Stockholm Arlanda has about 65 seasonally hired snow removal staff. Together with permanent staff, they form a team of 100 people who provide snow removal services. Special routes are planned for sweeping teams, which clear each route at intervals of 35 to 45 minutes. The sweeping teams are directed via radio from the air traffic control tower. When snow removal is completed on each runway the surface is tested by a friction vehicle which measures friction value. The airport announces the friction value, and then it is each pilot who decides whether this value is sufficient for a landing. The friction value determines how often a runway must be ploughed and treated with anti-skid agent.
Read more about this topic: Stockholm Arlanda Airport
Famous quotes containing the words winter, time, operations, snow and/or clearing:
“So Spring comes merry towards me here, but earns
No answering smile from me, whose life is twin’d
With the dead boughs that winter still must bind,”
—Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882)
“When peaceful clouds were reflected in the paddies
and the water buffalo stepped surely along terraces,
maybe fathers told their sons old tales.
When bombs smashed those mirrors
there was time only to scream.”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)
“There is a patent office at the seat of government of the universe, whose managers are as much interested in the dispersion of seeds as anybody at Washington can be, and their operations are infinitely more extensive and regular.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“What is last year’s snow to me,
Last year’s anything? The tree
Budding yearly must forget
How its past arose or set—”
—Countee Cullen (1903–1946)
“He had a whole heaven and horizon to himself, and the sun seemed to be journeying over his clearing only the livelong day.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)