Look! Moving Last Night's Heavy Snowfall Montreal

Wow, we here in Montreal had a heavy snowfall last night, and it's still going strong today. Deep into the winter, I'm beginning to get a grasp of the enormous snow removal efforts after a city snowfall. Each new and beautiful blanket of snow means a lot of removal activity on the streets below. I can witness the process from my apartment's front window...

First, nagging tow trucks parole the streets, blaring a distinct, repetitive honking alarm. This is to rouse people from their homes out onto the streets to move their cars. If they aren't moved, they are towed.

Right on the heels of the tow trucks, giant plows move all of the snow to the center of the street. This creates a narrow, continuous, 6-foot-tall linear pile of snow that stretches the full length of the street. The plows that do this look, from my apartment's vantage point, like giant yellow grasshoppers.

Next, a fleet of rumbling dump trucks lines up at the end of the street, ready to carry the snow away. One by one, each truck pairs with a snow-blowing truck. Together the two heavy machines move slowly down the street, side by side. The blower fills one dump truck within about a quarter of a block. The full dump truck drives away and the next in waiting pulls up aside the blower and they continue on down the block. Dump truck after dump truck is filled with snow that is carted out of the city.

The whole ordeal generally lasts about an hour on my block. Sure, it's loud and disruptive. But, for a first-timer in Montreal, it's a form of home entertainment, too.

Comments (19)

Wow, that is so much more efficient than what happens in Chicago--well, if "nothing" can be called a happening...The snow on my street is packed down by drivers until it becomes a deadly crust of gray matter.

Good job, Montreal!

you'll get used to it! :-)

i live in the southwestern Ontario snow belt now (London) and i'm surprized that the snow removal process here isn't as streamlined as the one in Ottawa (where i lived for 9 years).

Wow, I always wondered how they got rid of large snowfalls in big cities... Where I am, it just gets pushed to the side of the road or middle of the median, and I don't live in an itty-bitty city. Rockford, Illinois is not huge by any means, but not small either.

I live in Toronto, but I come from the prairies. I am always SO amazed by the fact that the city is such a mess when it rains. At home things just go right along, no snow days, speedy snow removal.

It is snowing outside my window too. :)

I love Montreal is a very beautiful and fun city to walk around and you feel very safe. The best music too and great Greek food. But wow I don't think I could take that as I sit here with the sun pouring through my windows.

The City of Montreal takes its snow removal very seriously. I was visiting my sister one snowy day when what sounded like a fog horn started blaring. My sis told me later it's a warning to all those parked on a street a snow removal truck is traveling along. All cars are to be removed during designated times throughout the winter so trucks can remove snow right up to the sidewalk. If you ignore the designated time or the last warning of the fog horn, your car is towed. Luckily however, it is only towed to a near by street as opposed to a pound. Where that street was would be for the car owner to figure out!

I remember during the Vietnam War when I was a young boy living on a US Air Force Base near Sault Ste Marie, Michigan the giant snowplows would come through Base Housing - they would clear the airstrips for the B-52's first, then do a circuit in Base Housing, then go back to the airstrips...

...it was so cold in mid-winter that all the engines for the B-52s would run all night so that if they needed to be deployed they could take off at a moment's notice.

The snow this year hasn't been too bad, last year was a real doozy.

Certain areas of Montreal have very good snow removal. Others, not so much. The side streets of NDG are usually a total mess, and I live in the West Island so nothing ever happens out here. They still haven't plowed my street.

You're "heavy snowfall" comment made me laugh. I've lived here all my life, and I can tell you, this ain't no heavy snowfall. Snow removal isn't that bad, as long as you live in an area where it's taken seriously (ie. downtown).

I lived on the Plateau for a while, and gosh, snow removal crews were slow slow slow. I lived on Clark St, one street West of St.Laurent Blvd ... you'd expect that street to be cleared in no time, but no.

Anyways, Montreal is a great city that just happens to be way too up north. ;) But we do make the most of your summertime with tons of more than awesome festivals.

Oh Montreal, should I love or hate you ?!

you're ... gosh, your. Sorry.

stepanka,
The festivals aren't just in the summer. I just got back from the fabulous Festival de Lumiere (an OUTDOOR winter festival, for you non-YUL folks), and I'll endure any amount of snow to live here. Where else can you find a tropical drum parade, carnival rides, fire-eaters, fortune tellers, stilt walkers and break dancers in sub-zero weather?

I love my Montreal!

haha, I never thought of looking at it from a new Montrealer point of view! It just seems so natural here, that I barely hear the tow trucks anymore.

Best description of it I've ever read! Welcome to Montreal winters! :)

I dearly love Montreal too.

One year here in Philly, we got 32 inches of snow in less than 24 hours... the dump trucks just drove onto our bridges and dumped the snow right into the river.

Here's a picture of that happening, though it's a different storm: http://tinyurl.com/crfwmw

It's funny, this storm really missed us (Ottawa) last night. And as for the snow removal in Ottawa, lets just say, it depends where you live ;)

We actually suspect that President Obama may have requested light snow instead of a heavy snow fall for his visit yesterday.

Oh, rouquinne, I lived in London for 20 years and I still can't believe how the city basically stops operating during a heavy snowfall. I moved down the highway to Goderich and they're much more efficient here (much smaller too, but oh well!).

Of course, I live right in the midst of town and the snowplows going around (and around and around and around) our town square wake me up at 4am every day! We're in the midst of another storm right now, of course.

I'm a born and raised Montrealer and I will agree with "Seb" that you hardly hear the trucks... you very easily learn how to tune it out, just like the hum from your refrigerator. However, I have to say despite Montreal having their snow removal routine down to a science, truck and plow operators have been under severe public scrutiny lately, after causing several deaths this winter alone, being notorious for damaging property and in certain instances even being arrested for DUI. My advice, steer clear of those snow plows.