Guest post from Tony

Clearing the snow and big machines


Following on from Gemma's post about the excess snow, back in February, we have now had two more big snow storms and seen the subsequent clean up.




Given it has been over 0 C on only a few days, the snow just accumulates, and accumulates.  It can be a few days after a snow storm before your street is cleared. Each side of the street has 2-3 days per week in which you are not allowed to park on that side: this gives the council workers specific days to come and clear the snow. In this case however, the no parking days are Tues & Thurs, and this clearing happened on a Saturday. Otherwise, the first indication that the streets will be cleared is the appearance of cardboard signs in the snow.  They come back and do the other side a few days later.

To clear the streets, they harvest the snow, which really is just the same way in which we harvest wheat!

First they put it into lines (windrows) with modified bobcats and Front end loaders. Please, may I be a bobcat driver when I grow up!!



Then the graders push it one way and then the other. A smaller version clears the footpath while the larger one clears the road.

Finally they harvest it into semitrailers, and take it to the tip, where it melts and any rubbish is left behind on then tip. All the machines work as a team, with three semi-trailers to one harvester. Once a semi trailer is full, it speeds off to the tip and the next one in line moves up.

Some of the semitrailers come from an hour or more away and I am sure some of the front end loaders are from farms as well. 

The amount of equipment we have seen in our small areas is amazing, and it gets you thinking of how much effort is needed to clear the 11,000 km of roads on the island of Montreal, let alone the other half of Montreal which is not on the island of Montreal.

These pictures show a small selection of other vehicles seen in our area. We were fortunate that all this happened on a Saturday morning when we happened to be home. Great entertainment for us! We love how the tractor has this pipe which sucks the snow up and blows it into the semi-trailer.

Then there are specialised vehicles to make the cross-country ski tracks in all the major parks (the yellow pads on the back make the tracks), or to groom the toboggan slopes, essentially a mini groomer from the ski fields!!!

As you can see,we have had quite a bit of snow, but because it has been so cold, we have not had as much as other years. We are told there could have been three times as much if it was about 10-15 degrees warmer.  In the warmer weather, the lakes don't freeze, so water evaporates and makes snow, when it is too cold the air is too dry to snow! Ironic to think in colder weather (approx -10 to -25) there is less snow but it is colder; but with milder temps (0 to -10) there is more snow. I'm not really sure which way I'd prefer it!