Lake-effect squalls arrive off the open water in bands, and Escanaba can go from clear stars to whiteout and back again inside an hour. Johnson snow plowing services works nights through all of it, blade down — plowing driveways and lots, shoveling the steps and walkways where a truck is no use at all. Some storms take one pass and some take three before sunrise, because the wind keeps refilling whatever was just cleared. Delta County winters ask for exactly that sort of patience, and there is a stubborn satisfaction in outlasting a storm. The measure of the night is simple enough: every drive open before a single person needs it.