Commercial Winter Summaries

November

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 Saturday/Sunday, November 25 & 26: 0.3"

Later during the day and through most of the night on Saturday into Sunday, we had intermittent VERY light snow. This light snow did not have a lot of moisture in it, but we did manage to develop enough snow from about highway 394 and to the south to make for slippery conditions. On Sunday (11/26), we salted parking lots, and shoveled/salted sidewalks as needed.

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December

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Saturday, December 9th : 0.3"

During the day on Saturday 12/9, we had periodic very light drizzle mixed with light snow. Due to warmer air temperatures along side warmer ground temperatures, most of the daytime precip was all liquid as it landed. No concerns during the day. But then, after 4-5pm, the temps did drop below freezing which made for the water to turn to ice. On top of that, we had a final couple snow burst bands move through to sit on top of it all. By 7-8pm, the system was on its way out and left us with about 0.2”- 0.4” of snow on top of the ice.

For commercial properties, this required a full salting of sidewalks and parking lots. Actually, there was some minor shoveling to do on sidewalks that “blew in” from the winds that developed. All the work was completed from about 9pm on Saturday evening through about 4am early the following Sunday 12/10.

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SATURDAY/SUNDAY: December 30 & 31: Some freezing drizzle then about 1.0” of snow

On Saturday, 12/30 - we had a clipper system that started to push in basically from North to South. As it moved closer to us, we had some freezing mist occur across the Twin Cities that made for things to get slick. This occurred from about 2pm until as late at 6pm that Saturday, 12/30. We DID salt some parking lots as this was going on or just after - at least the parking lots that were more urgent at that time, and that would be “open for business”.

Then, once that moved out, some light snow rolled in through the evening hours which produced about 0.2” of snow. But around midnight, a final band developed and basically rode down 494 straight south. This produced a burst of “heavier” snow that made for about 1” across all accounts by the end of the night.

During the late night hours of Saturday 12/30, or you can call it the VERY early morning hours of Sunday, 12/31, we did plow commercial properties that were likely going to be open on Sunday, 12/31. It was Sunday, and also it was the start of the New Year’s holiday. So, we did our best to focus on the proper accounts until sunrise, then we plowed the rest of the properties by noon on Sunday, 12/31. Once all properties were plowed, we SALTED all parking lots, and some for the second time in 2 days, because everything needed it knowing that all our salt “residue” was now gone off of hard surfaces from all that Christmas rain we had that washed it all away. So, pavement was very sensitive to freezing at this time, so it was essential to get a bunch more salt down. Same for sidewalks as well.

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January

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Saturday, January 7: .3” plus some mist (2 batches)

On Friday night, January 5 - we had a band of snow move through from South to North actually during the evening hours - basically between that 6pm & midnight time frame. Then, almost the exact timing, on the next day on Saturday, January 6 - this band moved through from west to east - both bands producing some freezing mist and about a coating to 0.2” of snow.

On Friday night, January 5th into the very early morning hours of Saturday, January 6th - we made the decision NOT to clear any walks or apply parking lot salt because the previous weekend we did 2 rounds of salt and that “salt residue” took care of melting what fell for the most part, and temps hovered right around freezing. Ground temps are rather warm for this time of the season as well.

Then, after the next band the night of 1/6 into early morning 1/7 (Sat/Sun) - the temps fell down to 20 degrees, and it was required to salt all parking lots and sidewalks for those who are signed up for it. Shoveling was not necessary or plowing.

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Monday, January 8 : 1.0”

During the daytime on Monday 1/8, we had a band of wet snow develop moving north ahead of a low pressure system. For parking lots: If you are signed up for Parking lot salt, the residue salt did take care of melting most of this snow as it fell. Some had about a quarter inch in the lots, but slowly but surely, that just melted. So, this round 1, there was nothing to do. Same goes for sidewalks. If you are a lot that does not receive regular salt services, you ended up receiving 1/2 of an inch or less if you are east of hwy 494, and close to an inch if you are west of hwy 494. For these properties, still not really enough snow to do anything with during the day. When this ended at 1pm Monday early afternoon, the forecast called for 1-2” more overnight that would start around 9/10pm, so we collaborated with other friends in business and made the decision to wait.
The next shot of snow did not materialize as they said, and held off until between about 5am-8am the next morning. We did end up plowing some parking lots overnight that we actually measured about an inch on. It was not a lot, but we did go around and physically take measurements at about 2am early Monday morning to see what each lot had in them. We plowed what technically hit our trigger, waited on the rest. And as the next band moved through between 5am-8am, it was not much, a dusting in most spots, so it did not warrant us to plow anymore parking lots at that time. All the lots that we DID NOT plow were at 0.5” or less by that time, and if they had more in them earlier, that means it all compressed down to 0.5” - and it was continuing to compress and if we drop a plow on it, hardly anything came up. We did do another round of full salting, and then we checked on all sidewalks during the early part of Monday, 1/8 for sidewalks we do salt under an inch. But, if your contract only includes sidewalk work at over an inch of snow, these properties were not attended to as it never made it past that threshold.

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SATURDAY, JANUARY 13 : 0.25” of very “dry" snow with a ton of wind

We had a well advertised Winter Storm push through our area from Friday, 1/12 and into the early morning hours of Sunday, 1/14. This was a very complex storm overall and covered a large portion of the united states. But, we happen to land on the exact NW edge of the storm where we still experienced plenty of wind eventually, but on the west side of the metro, not much snow. By the time all the VERY light DRY snow ending combined with the wind, it messed up sidewalks and South & East sides of commercial parking lots. On Saturday night from about 6pm until midnight, we added salt to sidewalks for precautionary reasons after we shoveled some scattered areas that were in need from the VERY little accumulation and the winds. Also, we salted some full parking lots. Another factor that was not mentioned about is that this storm brought in brutal wind chill temperatures along with our coldest air temps of the season dipping below zero. Parking lot is less affective with these conditions, but after traveling through all parking lots that CNR is responsible for salting, there were some that needed it. And last, while we were clearing these particular walkways and salting them, due to the wind blowing snow off rooftops, there was some plowing required as mentioned above on SOUTH & EAST SIDES of buildings that we took care of. If you are not signed up for any salt or shovel work under 1” of snow, your property was not attended to for any plowing or shoveling because we did not get even close to the 1” threshold. The only reason we did some minor plowing on the properties that we are responsible for sidewalk shoveling and salt under 1” is because we were already there doing the sidewalk work, so we took care of the drifting as well.

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February

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Wednesday, February 14 : 6.0"

We had a nice little compact system move through our area that actually over-exceeded the snow total expectations. 3-5 days before this system hit, it was forecasted to mostly stay south of our area, or maybe give us a very minor event if anything. Then, a couple days before the storm came in, weather models changed as the storm track changed. This put the Twin Cities within some of the heavies snow from this system and it dropped a thin stripe of 6-8” across the SW/southern/SE metro.

Snow began very lightly from west to east around 3pm on Valentines Day, 2/24. It was mostly melty on the roads, but it did start to accumulate on grass until dark. Once dark hit, the continuing light to moderate snow bands started to accumulate on everything, and then about 8-9pm, our heavies snow bands moved through until about 11pm or midnight. It is during this time when 3-5” of snow fell in about a 3 hour period…maybe less. Yep, that is not a mistake, it was that much snow in that short of time. With this said, it made for one of those pretty heavy water content within the newly fallen snow along with a decent chunk of accumulation. 6-7” of wet cement in a 2-3 hour period is nobody’s friend.

When snow falls that fast and that heavy, it basically puts everything to a stand still in the snow plowing industry. It is tough to get workers in fast (roads were very bad), it is tough to make up ground plowing because it is a decent pile, but also it is wet and heavy. It just makes things more difficult. In the end, we did plow everything 1x, instead of possibly getting through everything 2x. Plowing that much wet/heavy snow takes a lot longer to get through routes. We appreciate your patience as we did get to all customers as soon as we could, along with working our tails off.

So, through all the morning hours until sunrise, we worked our trucks/plows very hard (with such heavy snow) - and did get everything cleared off by sunrise. Sidewalks were completed by about 5am as well. Salt was used heavily for sidewalks because when we cleared the wets snow off, it flash freezed a nice layer of ice. And speaking of flash-freeze, it did the same thing when we plowed parking lots. The snow was so wet underneath, when we cleared it off with the dropping temps, it created a fast layer of ice even before we left the parking lot completely. This made for a situation for salt to be applied to parking lots heavier than usual. This was done between about 6am-10am that Thursday morning, 2/15. And then some needed to get salted a bit more the following night in areas we could not get to during the day due to parked cars.

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27 : Falling, melting snow, flash freeze

Through the afternoon on Tuesday, 2/27 - we had a band of snow move through that actually was heavy at times, but most of it melted on contact due to our recent warm weather. Parking lot/sidewalk temps were above freezing as it fell. But, we did go from 45 degrees that day, then snow moved in while it was about 28 degrees, and then that night the temp dropped down to around 5 degrees. This was a “flash freeze” situations on parking lots, and we did go through all CN’R accounts that require salt when needed and applied salt where needed. Most lots did not need the parking lot fully salted, so minimum charges did apply to these as we were doing our job going through our route and making sure we spread salt in those icy areas the occurred. We did look at sidewalks, and all sidewalks dried before it froze, so no work was needed on sidewalks.

 

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March

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Friday, March 22 : 1.5"

On Thursday evening, 3/21 - very light snow started to fall about 6-7pm-ish. It was melting on contact to start, then it started to accumulate on grassy/raised surfaces, then finally as the late March warm sun got well set - it started to stick to roads/parking lots/driveways. Most of the accumulation was done by 3-4am early Friday morning, 3/22.
**but, thereafter, snow showers continued off and on through about 8am that morning which caused another dusting over things. Then as the sun came out later that morning, that dusting melted fast.

Commercial parkting lots were plowed in full pretty much between about 2am & 8am. Salt was used on parking lots very early in the morning on Friday, 3/22 because temps were hovering in the upper 20’s. So, as we plowed things, the parking lots were re-freezing with the water base of the snow. Sidewalk shoveling was completed as well, and salt was used only as necessary on sidewalks.

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SUN / MON. - MARCH 24/25 : 8.0"

During the morning hours at around 10am on 3/24, we did start to see some light snow that lasted throughout the day. But the daytime sun angle and warmer temps did a good job of melting a lot of it as it fell. As we did get later in the afternoon, parking lots/roads were still not collecting too much snow.

The rest of the night more snow moved in and it got really heavy until about 1am, then it transitioned to rain/sleet, and snow mixed in. Pretty much for the rest of the morning on Monday, 3/25, it rained/snowed & sleeted.

So, during the later evening hours of Sunday, 3/24 - we did open commercial lots to get some of that “weight” off the lots, because it snowed a lot and it compacted significantly which made it similar to plowing wet cement. Also, it made it not measure as much as we got, but when we pealed up the snow with our blades, it was like plowing a regular 8-10” of snow because there was so much sleet/rain/snow mixed into the compacted mess.

During the process of opening/clearing off some of this weighted snow, we did not have time to plow in full, plus it was still snowing/sleeting & raining later, so we just got the chunk up and then we re-plowed heavy slush on parking lots as businesses started to open. Because we got that weight off earlier, we were able to be successful and faster later in the night and early Monday morning to achieve our goals for having all properties plowed from curb to curb. The decision making earlier in the night was a key factor!

Shoveling sidewalks - started at about 11pm - completed this one time through, then had to go back to some that accumulated more snow once we started. But, all shoveling was completed by 7-8am (3/25) at the latest. We had to go back to some blvd sidewalks that the City plow pushed snow up on later that morning to clear more snow off.

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TUESDAY, MARCH 26TH : 4.0"

Timeline:
-3am-ish 3/26, solid rain moved in, yes, rain, at night.
-5-7am-ish rain turned to freezing rain in a matter of seconds.
-630a-830a - freezing rain mixed with sleet and became heavy sleet at times.
-730a-930a - sleet mixed with snow, pretty heavy at times as the cooler air continued to moved in, eventually to all snow.
-then it all snow, heavy at times until 2pm that afternoon of Tuesday, 3/26
-although the bulk of the accumulation was done by 2pm, snow showers continued off and on thereafter
-some accumulations from the snow showers after 2pm through the evening, but some melted, some did not, depends on the surface.

Early in the morning of 3/26, as the rain changed to freezing rain instantly, we did have our salt truck out, so most properties were salted between about 5am-7am - to get a layer of salt down before things got really tricky. We feel this helped a ton for all our parking lots we are responsible for salting.

Also to note, between about 7:30am-10:00am that morning of 3/26, we went to a few properties to shave off any slush/sleet/snow off sidewalks going to main entrances, and we applied heavy salt to hopefully keep up with the falling snow during the day. When we checked back later, this proved to be a very good thing to do and helped some properties out.

We started to open commercials about 11am until about 2-3pm that day. All commercials required these openings as it was that heavy slush/sleet/snow mix that was nice to peal up as much as we could get up especially on runways. This proved huge because less freezing occurred when the temps dropped later during the day and through the night, pretty significantly.

All sidewalks were shoveled one time through from about noon until 6pm that day. We went as fast as we could, but the shoveling was slower due to the heavy layer of slush/sleet under the fallen snow, plus it got deeper on South and East side of buildings where snow was blowing. It actually became powdery and blew around quite a lot from the strong gusts. Salt was used heavily on sidewalks once again, and we had to come back that night to re-salt more sidewalks because the liquid from the day and melting “flash-freezed”.

Final curb to curb plow happened through the entire night as business closed.

Then as we were winding down plowing, we had to re-salt most parking lots again as the lots “flash-freezed” as well. Just became a crunchy ice mess. This was completed between about 3am-6am early Wednesday morning, 3/27.

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april

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