Quote Originally Posted by razz
The snowplow residue is so solidly packed that it is hard to move, isn't it?
I just got back in from tackling the stuff the city plow left. It was not as bad as I thought. This snow was so much warmer (!) than the previous two feet or so that it was dense to start with and then the humidity went down and the winds picked up and apparently a fair amount of moisture was carried away. Still, just about what a single-stage snowblower can handle, but a two-stage is so unnecessary so much of the time and a real bear to handle, so we just work a little longer.

Quote Originally Posted by Miss Cellaneous View Post
All the parking lots at shopping centers and such have huge mountains of snow, making it challenging to enter and exit aisles of parking spaces.
Not that it's a competition , but we have those, too, except that in colder springs the very end of them lasts well into June. It's fun to watch visitors from elsewhere (especially warmer climates) watch plow crews in downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul load dump trucks full of snow that is then driven to points unknown to be emptied. There's just nowhere to put it downtown. You adapt here (as do others with heavy snow levels).

Quote Originally Posted by Miss Cellaneous View Post
But it is fun to watch the snow mountains melt come April or May, and see what emerges from them. Shopping carts, trash barrels, umbrellas, once I even saw a desk--how that got into a parking lot to be plowed up, I have no idea.
Lots of garbage in those piles for sure. MNDOT usually has an promotional exhibit of the equipment they use at the State Fair; usually they have a fully-outfitted plow truck into which you can climb. Those things are huge and it's hard to see what's around you despite how high up you are. I can see where good-sized plow trucks would not be able to skirt the random shopping cart or road debris and would sweep it into the big pile.

For everyone's viewing pleasure (can't find the original MNDOT video so let's see if the Facebook link works). This is traffic video of a snowplow convoy clearing I-94 near the Twin Cities.