What happens to all of the snow?

[Guest]

As a Californian looking at all of the piles of snow on the sides of the streets on the east coast, I'm wondering what happens to all of the snow? I'm sure it can't just stay there until Spring... Do they put this stuff in trucks and take it to the city dump, or to a field somewhere? In a river if there's a river nearby? Or do they have machines that melt the stuff? Sorry if this seems like a silly question, but I'm really curious...

[Kevin Slater]

It's supposed to hit the 50s this week. Most of the snow will melt and go down the gutters.

 

Kevin Slater

[Mark Gordon]

We make igloos out of it to live in.

[leigh.bess.toad]

It goes back to helll where it belongs, I hope. Can you giuess I don'lt like it? But as for the really big piles -- yeah, they'll wait and let it melt. Given how huge those piles are, it's amazing how fast they can melt. Last year's enormous piles went away quite quickly when it finallyl stopped snowing.

[+ bigjoey]

In Manhatten's key areas like Times Square, they place a heated funnel over the sewer and dump the snow into the funnel; because it is heated (propane I think), the snow melts and the water runs down the sewer to the river. In the "old days", they use to load the snow into dump trucks and dump it in the rivers to be carried off. This speeds up the process of waiting for a warm spell to melt the snow.

[justaguy]

And on the news last night...

 

[video=youtube;kt_r-jO3lKE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt_r-jO3lKE&feature=player_embedded

[instudiocity]

But as for the really big piles -- yeah, they'll wait and let it melt. Given how huge those piles are, it's amazing how fast they can melt. Last year's enormous piles went away quite quickly when it finallyl stopped snowing.

 

Sorta like my erection in the prescence of a hot man, huh?

[Guest countryboywny]

I think that I am the resident expert on snow!

 

Around here, (Buffalo) the snow in the city is loaded on to dump trucks and hauled out. Usually to the Niagara River, but also to other locations just outside the city like open fields and such. We folks that live in the burbs usually pile it up on our front lawns, side yards etc. and wait for it to melt... like in May maybe? LOL

[Guest skrubber]

As a Californian looking at all of the piles of snow on the sides of the streets on the east coast, I'm wondering what happens to all of the snow? I'm sure it can't just stay there until Spring... Do they put this stuff in trucks and take it to the city dump, or to a field somewhere? In a river if there's a river nearby? Or do they have machines that melt the stuff? Sorry if this seems like a silly question, but I'm really curious...

 

All of the options you suggested have been implemented with varying degrees of success except the snow melting machine. We do have such a thing 93 million miles away called the sun and it works quite well.

[+ deej]

In most urban areas that experience lots of snow, the bulk of it gets hauled off. In Chicago, there are water reclamation centers where snow is deposited and melted and then run into the city's water treatment plants and into the water supply. A lot of it also gets dumped on the beaches at the lake shore.

 

Some cities, though, don't get enough snow to warrant maintaining a large removal infrastructure. A heavy snow in DC, for example, can close the city for a week because they're just not equipped to handle it.

[Guest Spanky]

Some cities, though, don't get enough snow to warrant maintaining a large removal infrastructure. A heavy snow in DC, for example, can close the city for a week because they're just not equipped to handle it.

 

Heavy snow? If by heavy you mean a forecast that in three day's time there may be a dusting, then yes, a "heavy snow" will shut down DC for a week. And when there is even a hint of snow, you'd better run (not walk) to the store to buy milk, bread, and toilet paper, because people buy that stuff before a storm like they are stocking up for a nuclear winter.

[+ deej]

Heavy snow? If by heavy you mean a forecast that in three day's time there may be a dusting, then yes, a "heavy snow" will shut down DC for a week. And when there is even a hint of snow, you'd better run (not walk) to the store to buy milk, bread, and toilet paper, because people buy that stuff before a storm like they are stocking up for a nuclear winter.

 

When I lived in DC I used to joke that you could snarl traffic for miles around by just putting up a sign that said SNOW.

 

One year they closed all the schools because of a forecast. It fizzled and the kids enjoyed a lovely day off in shirtsleeve weather. The next time the same forecast rolled around, they didn't close the schools and -- predictably -- got a foot of snow. That's a city that does not handle weather well. (Even *good* weather can foul up traffic!)

[Guest ihpguy]

Sublimation.

[Doe Be Doe]

The dump trucks are out and working in Manhattan at least. A large part of Third Ave was blocked by snow Tuesday and Wednesday. Last night I saw the bulldozers scooping up the snow and dumping it in the dump trucks. I like snow and can't wait for the next storm. But I really can't stand the after effects of slush and standing water.

[uwsman2]

It all depends on the variability of the weather. In NYC, it is not unusual for a snowstorm to be followed by days of above-freezing weather, conducive to melting. The problem is that at many of the street corners there is inadequate drainage, so within a few days of a big snowstorm, we may be confronted with big lakes at street corners, requiring us to wear boots even when the sidewalks themselves are clear and even dry.

[KMEM]

Anyone ever been to Massena, NY? They seem to have an above average amount of snow. The last time I was there, a commuter with high wings ( a Twin Otter) would disappear behind the snow plowed or dumped to the side of the taxi-ways on the airport. The tail of a Twin Otter is about 20 feet tall.

 

However, the all time place for snow fall that I have personally seen is Yakutat, AK where it snows upwards of 200 inches per year. I was there one December and it snowed about 9 inches while I was re-fueling which took less than an hour. Crazy.

 

Best regards,

KMEM

[+ Charlie]

Earlier this year I met someone who had worked in Yakutat for a few years. He said that what he hated was not the snow itself but the isolation.

[KMEM]

There are many places in AK where one is at least somewhat "isolated". The folks I saw there wore Mukluks which isolate your feet.

 

Best regards,

KMEM

[+ Gar1eth]

When I lived in Madison, Wi, they cleared the streets really well. But in places like mall parking lots, they would collect all the snow from the parking lot into big snow mounds all over the lot. And these mounds would be there in the parking lot until spring.

 

Gman

[Steven_Draker]

I'd ask myself first "Where all that snow came from?" and why the polar ice on the North Pole is melting progressively more and more each year ... ?

[+ deej]

I'd ask myself first "Where all that snow came from?" and why the polar ice on the North Pole is melting progressively more and more each year ... ?[/color]

 

Lets not confuse weather with climate. The words have different meanings and different science behind them.

 

NYC gets hit with a blizzard like this about every 10 years, and New Yorkers complain about snow removal every time:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/31/nyregion/31outrage.html?_r=1

[gp0560]

When I lived in Madison, Wi, they cleared the streets really well. But in places like mall parking lots, they would collect all the snow from the parking lot into big snow mounds all over the lot. And these mounds would be there in the parking lot until spring.

 

Gman

 

Oh man, I remember those mounds! They seemed somehow to melt from the inside, too, so that they were always high enough to be driving hazards until well into spring.

[Rick Munroe]

NYC gets hit with a blizzard like this about every 10 years, and New Yorkers complain about snow removal every time:

 

Interesting that, according to the article, it's only really bad when there's a Republican Mayor.

[Doe Be Doe]

Interesting that, according to the article, it's only really bad when there's a Republican Mayor.

 

But we just had, what, the third biggest snowfall ever and we don't have a Republican mayor at the moment.

[+ Charlie]

Interesting that, according to the article, it's only really bad when there's a Republican Mayor.

John Lindsay became a Democrat after that, but it didn't revive his political career.