"...a big honkin' snowthrower..."

OK, same question, and I am serious here, not pulling your chain. I am a flatlander from CA, with as much experience with the dreaded white stuff as I ever want to have, but curious minds want to know. If you run that big honkin' snow thrower twice a day, it seems to me that in no time at all you are gonna have a pile of snow built up as high as the thrower can throw. So then what do you do? In my minds eye I see a pathway as wide as the snow thrower, the road, driveway, whatever, with walls of thrown snow a dozen feet tall on both sides, with more snow on the ground, and the thrower can no longer throw snow to the top of the pile...

Having run the snow blower as a young(er) lad when my Dad was away. You can blow the snow out in front of you, so in effect you are moving the same snow a few times until it's clear. The key with this is you have to keep on top of it or you will get snowed in. As I live within a three hundred yards of Lake Champlain we don't get that kind of accumulation (thankfully) The lake really acts as a moderating influence.

"...You can blow the snow out in front of you, so in effect you are moving the same snow a few times until it's clear..."

Yeah, but all that snow has got to go somewhere. If a total of 100 inches has fallen, even if you keep on top of it, the areas that are not being cleared (let's say the shoulder of a road), will have 100 inches of snow. Then you are trying to keep the road clear by blowing the snow off of it, it seems to me that the snow that used to be on the road has to go on top of the already accumulated snow. Making the 100 inches of snow taller and taller. I know that the 100 inches didn't all get there at the same time, but if there is 100 in the uncleared areas, and that is where the snow from the cleared areas must go...see what I mean???

I grew up in Maine so i have some experience with snow (even more experience with a snow shovel). the 100" of snow is probably the total snow fall that NY has had. when you get 12" of snow in a storm that is the white puffy snow after a few days that 12" has probably shrank down to 6 or 8" from the top layers melting. as far as snow removal I have seen 20 foot high snow piles in big parking lots where they have used front end loaders to pile it all up. I have also seen work crews load snow into dump trucks from the snowbanks along the road and go dump them else where. as you pile up snow it also compresses from the weight.

I don't know if that was a clear explanation if not i will try to clarify it when there are more questions.

Nope, that will do, thanks. Now I get the picture...

"...the 100" of snow is probably the total snow fall that NY has had..."

No. They have gotten eleven feet of snow in 10 days.

Sue

Yes, but his point is that they're "accumulating" the depth that has fallen, not the depth that lies on the ground at the moment. For example, a reporter from there, on Monday night (when I think it had reached the 10' mark) was talking about how some of the drifts were "almost as tall as me". Now, I figure she's less than 6' and, even if not, she can't be much more. So the snow had packed and compressed (and maybe some melted a little, I don;t know).

So you pile the snow off to the side. You have NO WHERE ELSE to put it (speaking about the average homeowner). Additionally, as roads are cleared by heavy equipment, they have absolutely nowhere to put that snow except to push it off to the side (which happens to be your curb and front yard). There is nowhere they can cart it to even IF that were possible, let alone plausible. So if you're shoveling your driveway, you keep piling it off to the side and it gets higher and wider until it stops snowing. I've NEVER seen 10' of snow, but I do know what 4' can do.

When you hear of some places loading dumptrucks with snow to be carted off, that is very area specific and has nothing to do with residential areas except for main arteries of traffic...if then.

RE: Where do you put it...
Yep, that's a problem. Depending on the SIZE of the big honking snowblower, you'd be surprized how FAR you can throw the snow - From what I understand, Montreal has one big enough that they throw the snow from in front of your house OVER the house into your back yard

I know a few years back, when we got the record snowfall for the year here in NYC (say, 1997), what most folks did was grab a parking spot on the block, and that became "the snow pile" - we just kept piling snow there. Around 1-2x/week, a city dump truck would come by with a payloader, and load all the street slowpiles into the truck, and they would cart it off to be dumped in a huge pile right next to the bay - when it melted, it went right into the river

Most ancient glabrous one:
I think the posts in reply to your question explain it. I only log one once a day so I am a latecomer. A snowthrower will throw the snow 20 feet, a 2-stage model even further. But yes, eventually you run out of room. My personal experience only goes to 3-4 feet of snow, and that starts to become life-threatening for the unprepared. So what do they do with 8-12 feet? There is a state of emergency in that area around Oswego that got snowed on for eight days straight. The emergency has been extended another five days. The national guard is shoveling snow there. In a city, it becomes more acute as to what to do with the snow...they load it up into dump trucks and dump it somewhere. Intersections become dangerous as you cannot see around the snow piles. Road signs get covered. Fire hydrants dissapear. Heck, cars dissapear! I once saw a city bus with the front half completely buried by snow in Buffalo, NY after a 4-footer. It had crashed into a snowdrift, been abandoned, and got covered by snowplow snow.
The other thing those people up in Oswego are doing is shoveling off their roofs. Snow is heavy and can damage the more shallow roofs. Plus, the show underneath is melting from the heat of the house and running down to the gutter and freezing. Left to its own devices, the ice will get up under the eves and damage the house.
So the survival lesson for lots of snow around here is to stock food, fuel and water, and keep up with the snow if possible. Houses around here have a regular door that opens to the inside and a storm door that opens to the outside. Try opening that door from the inside with 4 feet of snow in front of it <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />. The other big reason to keep up with the snow is that the snowplows that are clearing the streets are dumping huge piles of dense snow in front of your driveway. If you ignore it, you are trapped.

Right now we are having a big nor'easter in my neck of the woods. 2-3 feet predicted. Spent a hour digging out this morning, and I expect to see my driveway blocked when I get home tonight, and will spend another hour digging out tonight.

Few days ago two water mains broke from the cold and we were without water for a few days. First time I had to use my water stash. Wife doesn't think I am so crazy anymore. It pays to hang out here!

"...Most ancient glabrous one..." I like that! Maybe I should change my signature to MAGO. Nope, some wag would come up with a way to add another O, and who would want to be known as Mr. Magoo???

Thanks for your input, it is the best info yet. Makes me even happier that I am from the land of none (or very little) of dreaded white stuff...