![Snow removal equipment at Cleveland Hopkins Airport. [Gabriel Kramer / ideastream]](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/484bf62/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1920x1080+0+0/resize/840x472!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F11%2F27%2FStill%202.png)
Old Man Winter arrived a little early this season with 2.1 inches of snow falling at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport Monday night.
On Tuesday, the airport's snow removal team rehearsed its winter storm choreography.
"We're quite proud of what the teams are doing in conjunction with the airlines and the air traffic control," said Robert Kennedy, the Cleveland Airport System's director of port control. "It's a great orchestrated ballet, I like to call it, between all the actors in this that make it happen."
The airport received 46.6 inches of snow last winter and 37.3 inches the year before.
In 2015, Cleveland Hopkins was fined by the Federal Aviation Administration for having insufficient snow removal staff. The federal oversight agency ruled that Hopkins had failed to plow and deice runways properly, leading to unsafe conditions and forcing some flights to be diverted to other airports.
But Kennedy spoke confidently that the current team is properly staffed for the coming winter.
The airport also now has 108 pieces of snow removal equipment, more than it has owned in the past.
