In recent years, there have been all sorts of strange snowplow stories. Some of those come from many cities and states holding naming contests for their plows, which, of course, produces some funny results. But that gets a little stranger when those plow owners are tweeting serious news about their plow fleet, as happened with the Washington State Department of Transportation East (east of the Cascade Mountains) and their updates on “Plowie McPlow Plow” Friday:
Unfortunately a few minutes after these pictures were taken, a driver rear-ended Plowie McPlow Plow as it was plowing eastbound I-90 west of Spokane. Please slow down as snow continues and give our plows space. https://t.co/2WAkg2RKcy pic.twitter.com/7TqTZAD9Yc
— WSDOT East (@WSDOT_East) December 23, 2022
Fortunately, Plowie McPlow Plow was not kept out of action too long:
Plowie McPlow Plow has returned to service. https://t.co/hwcyKej7Or
— WSDOT East (@WSDOT_East) December 23, 2022
Plowie McPlow Plow got that name in 2019 from a public vote, carrying on the tradition of Boaty McBoatFace. It has since been joined in the WSDOT fleet by The Big Leplowski, Sir Plows-A-Lot, and Betty Whiteout.
Washington State is one of the many parts of North America hit by a giant winter storm this week. Spokane, near where this incident happened, hit its lowest temperature (-23F) in 14 years Thursday, and had seen 32 inches of snow this winter (more than the double the normal pace) heading into Friday. Another three to four inches was set to fall Friday, as the National Weather Service Spokane office tweeted:
Snow is spreading over the region. Here are some forecast snow totals for today through tonight.
For details for your location, go to https://t.co/JHuOhcf3ru and enter your city and state.#wawx #idwx pic.twitter.com/haZsR4Mggj
— NWS Spokane (@NWSSpokane) December 23, 2022
With all that snow falling, it’s a good thing that it didn’t take too long to get Plowie McPlow Plow back on the road after this rear-ending.
[WSDOT East on Twitter]