Winter Storm Olive blanketed the area with a little more than a foot of snow, which coupled with strong winds drifted over roads and made travel treacherous Wednesday night and much of the day Thursday.

Another storm is expected Monday that could drop between six and 10 inches of snow or a mix of snow and freezing rain, depending on the temperature.

Olive closed schools, canceled fights, and caused businesses to close early and open late when the impacts of the storm warning from the National Weather Service came to fruition.

Local road crews were busy with clean up Thursday morning as the snow continued to fall and residents were busy shoveling and snow blowing to clear sidewalks and driveways.

News File Photo The heads on a statue of two children peek over a large snow drift in front of the Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library in this February 2023 News archive photo.

Ryan Brege, the Alpena County Road Commission managing director, said some of his crews began maintaining the roads at about 3 a.m. Thursday and more staff was added later in the morning. He said drivers faced heavy snow and drifting and the northern part of Alpena County seemed to have the more severe conditions.

Brege said because the snow was ongoing on Thursday, and because crews had to focus on state highways and other primary roads, it could take several days to adequately clean up the fallout from Olive.

We’ll definitely take a couple days to clean this up,” he said. “We’ll be out there on Friday and again Monday.”

Some area schools, like Alpena Public Schools, let school out early on Wednesday in preparation for the storm and called off class for Thursday at the same time.

The school district has surpassed the state’s limit on the amount of school days it can be forgiven for being closed, and if more closures are needed, make-up days for students will be needed.

Superintendent Dave Rabbideau said the school district is allowed to close school for six days and it can request a waiver or forgiveness for an additional three days. He said, so far, schools in Alpena were closed for nine days, so any other closures will need to be made up.

Rabbideau said some of the days when kids were kept home were due to illnesses impacting staff and students.

The Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library, local banks, credit unions, and other offices and businesses opened later than normal and the roads were more passable.

The storm also impacted passengers who scheduled flights to and from the Alpena County Regional Airport.

Airport Manager Steve Smigelski said both of the flights slated for Wednesday were canceled, as were the pair of flights on Thursday. He said the wind, more than the snow, was the primary reason the flights were called off.

“It was blowing so much it was creating finger drifts across the runway,” he said.

The likelihood of students missing more class time is high, as the National Weather Service is predicting another snowstorm for early next week. The forecast for Monday includes a 90% chance of three to five inches of snow during the day on Monday, and an additional three to five inches Monday night into Tuesday morning.

Because the stormtrack and intensity of the forecasted winter storm could change, details and projections related to the storm could change in the coming days.

Temperatures are also expected to rebound as the NWS predicts temperatures in the low to mid 30s all of next week, which could cut in the amount of snow projected.

Meteorologist Keith Berger said if he was a betting man, he would put his money on Alpena getting more of a freezing drizzle and less snow that what is projected now. However, he said if cooler air drops into Michigan from Canada, snow totals could climb.

“We know something is coming, but what it will be for sure we don’t know yet,” he said. “It looks like we would be on the warm side of the storm and it could be a mixed bag of rain, freezing rain, and snow.”