Residential Winter Summaries

November

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December

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 2 : 0.4"

We received another coating of snow on driveways that did not even add up to a half inch. Customers signed up for our “light snow” service which is plowing and/or shoveling at 0.5” or more were not completed during this event. It just was not enough. But, we did go out and salt some driveways with steeper inclines, if you are signed up. It is time to get some salt and salt residue built up on these driveways, and this was a good opportunity to do this. Again, if you are signed up for salting of your driveway, not all driveways were salted. We felt “flat” driveways did not need a salt application for this event.

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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4 : Rain to sleet/snow showers, then a flash freeze

During the morning hours, we had a powerful cold front move through that brought a quick batch of rain, freezing rain, sleet, then snow showers. The band of rain/freezing rain/sleet came through in a line with this powerful front. So it did not last long, but it was strong and the sleet started to accumulate. The rest of the day was just snow bursts and snow showers.

When the line came through it was about 33-34 degrees at about 9am, and by noon we were down to 23 degrees with wind gusts from 35-45 mph. You can imagine that things froze up quickly so this was a salting event.

We checked on all driveways signed up for the “driveway salt” service. Some needed it, some did not. Why did some not need it? Because we heavily salted 2 days ago, and there was still enough residue on some driveways to melt this off. And also, last salting we did not do all driveways, so some driveways did not have any residue on them.

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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11 : 0.4"

We had another cold blast roll through the area basically from about 11pm on 12/10 until about 3-4am on 12/11 (very early in the morning). This blast brought another similar bout of snow along the front and dropped a heavy fluffy coating of about 0.4”, maybe 0.5” in spots, and in some areas we were measuring more like 0.2-0.3”. Some areas may seem thicker because the winds picked up after it was done snowing and blew the fluffy snow around. The snow liquid ratio was in that 15:1-18:1 range. That means it had very little water content.

This was NOT plowable. Even if we tried to scrape a little bit up, it was such a small amount because of the high ratio. After testing, it was not doing anything to try and plow it. This was well under our 1” threshold. But for residential customers that are signed up for our “light snow” service which includes snow totals between 0.5” - 0.99” - this was very borderline, if not still under the 0.5” amount. If this was a high liquid content (a heavy snowfall around 0.5”) - then we likely would have plowed it because during those events, we scrape up a lot more with our plows. As said above, this was so fluffy, plus barely, if even a half inch of snow (not counting blowing).

What we did for some residents is salt steeper inclined driveways and/or longer driveways that perhaps go uphill. We looked at a lot of driveways, some just did not need attention because of the salt residue still on the driveway from the previous week’s multiple rounds of salting. Not all customers that were signed up for salting were completed this time around, just the ones we saw were necessary to put another coating of salt on.

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SATURDAY/SUNDAY, DECEMBER 14/15 : 0.1” snow, plus ice/sleet accumulation

Prior to this smaller storm system arriving our surface temperatures were 15 degrees. So, anything that fall and melts is going to freeze and/or re-freeze. All day on Saturday, December 14 we received freezing rain, some sleet, and some snow mixing in. It was off and on with breaks, etc.

We waited to complete any driveway salting (if you are signed up) until Sunday morning, 12/15. Because freezing fog/freezing drizzle continued through the night on Saturday 12/14, and temps started to rise a bit where they made it above freezing by Sunday 12/15 morning. Therefore, at that time, we went out to spread salt on driveways during the day time hours of Sunday 12/15.

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Thursday, December 19 : 6.0"

A STRONG ALBERTA CLIPPER

TIMING? The worst possible timing any storm can be. WHY? Because when snow starts to accumulate at 3-4am, and it snows rather hard at that time, it is too early to plow properties because nothing has accumulated until daybreak. Therefore, when customers come in to work or wake up at their residents and see a bunch of snow out there, perhaps they may think it was snowing all night when it was not. The bulk of this snow fell on Thursday morning between about 6am & 11am.

HOW THE SNOW FELL (TIMING):
  - Thursday morning 12/19: Onset = 3-4am.
  - Most of the snow fell between 6am - 11am
  - 12pm, Thursday, 12/19: about 4-6” on the ground
  - 12pm until about 6pm: On and off snow showers (this did add up to another 1-2” slowly but surely)
  - 9pm-midnight, Thursday 12/19: Another band moves through, drops about 1/2” or less (so a coating of snow)

OPERATIONS:
  - 6am-noon on Thursday, 12/19: Depending on which route you are on, we started to dig out residents during these morning hours. Some were started earlier, some were started later.
  - All day into the evening hours of Thursday, 12/19: It took us all day to get through all customers. We apologize for this, but there are a couple of reasons why this took all day explained below.
  - 6pm-midnight, Thursday 12/19: Some routes did get re-plowed due to the continuing light snow all day. The west / Southwest side of the metro did see the steadier light snow during the day, but as you go east, there was less accumulation at times during the day/evening. Though to explain
  - All residents were plowed 1x, a lot 2x, and some 1.5x. What does 1.5x mean? It means we did some touch up work to some much later in the process due to the relentless light snow that kept linger, and due to City plows finally coming out.
  - The final band (after a small break) came through (as noted above) between about 9pm-midnight on Thursday evening, 12/19. This dropped a coating to a half inch. Some routes were re-plowed or touched-up after this band, depends on your location. Some of these routes were re-shoveled (sidewalks) some were not. This is tough to explain. This part was completed during the early morning hours of Friday, 12/20

MORE EXPLANATION OF OPERATIONS:

WHY DID THIS STORM TAKE LONGER TO PLOW?
      Craig, owner of C N’R, writes these summaries. I am not an “excuse” type of guy, but here are the reasons:

When snow falls basically all at once with this type of timing, it makes it really difficult to get workers in. Traffic, snow piling up, and snow falling all creates difficulty just to get to work. Also, when we get 4-6” of snow basically within a 4 hour period, even City plows take a long time to get things done. Even County plows take awhile. We noticed many roads not plowed even at 10am-noon on Thursday morning still. You look around, some things are plowed, but most things are not whether you are looking at residents driveways, side streets, main streets, or commercial parking lots. Most things stayed a mess the bulk of the day on Thursday, and us (C N’R) as a company has to deal with all these elements to get place to place, slowly but surely.

We also have a couple drivers in training and learning the process. When we get this type of timing, plus it is a larger snowfall, new drivers even take longer, and it is what it is. I (Craig) would like quality work first over “fast work”, and that is how I train. I apologize if your driveway took a little longer to get to. I am out there in the field 100% of the time as well, whether it is plowing or shoveling supporting our team, and trying to fill “slow holes” so to speak. After checking on things the next day, the newer workers on our team are doing a great job, but yes, still moving slower. It will get better and better as the season goes.

Also, a quick note about our employee that passed away last summer. He also played a significant role within our routes, and his spot is tough to replace, so we need to grow to that point again.

SHOVELING RESIDENTIAL SIDEWALKS?
  - all were shoveled 1x through obviously
  - some were shoveled again due to the 1-2” of snow that fell the rest of the day on Thursday, 12/19.
  - some were shoveled again that night, due to that last band of snow that pushed through.
  - some were shoveled again the next day for touch up work.

KEY NOTE: When the majority of snow had fallen by noon, and then the 1-2” that fell slowly but surely until 6pm (12/19-Thursday), This is considered the storm. When that last band of snow moved through during later part of Thursday night into Friday morning, this was considered a separate snowfall. So, if you were totally clean before that band came through, we did not return for another clean up after that band because it did not hit any threshold to re-plow or re-shovel as it was less than a half inch in most spots.

I (Craig) can write a book about this, but if there are any other additional concerns, please email me at cnrlawn@me.com, or call me.

Thank you for your patience.

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 30 : Freezing Dense Fog

We broke a record at the airport over the past couple of days with consecutive hours with visibility at or lower than 1/2 mile. To say the least, it has been a long stretch of foggy weather. With that said, fortunately most of the time the temps have been above freezing, but the last couple of nights, the temped dipped below freezing and caused surfaces to freeze. For residential, especially the morning of Monday, 12/30 is when it was the worst. Slowly but surely that day, the temps did get up above freezing, but it stayed either icy or just very wet. And the forecast calls for temps to really dip overnight Monday night 12/30 into Tuesday morning 12/31. And then forward staying below freezing for the rest of the week/weekend. On top of all this, we did have a hard rain on Friday, 12/27 into Saturday, 12/28 - and this harder rain washed all “salt residue” off of driveways. So, here we sit with freezing fog, dropping temperatures, and no salt on driveways. During the day on Monday, 12/30 - if you are signed up for our “driveway salt” service, you were salted.

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January

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 9TH AND FRIDAY, JANUARY 10TH : 0.4"

Later during the day on Thursday, 1/9 = we did receive a snow band that created just less than a half inch in most places. Some areas only had like 0.2” or 0.3”. The importance of these exact measurements are because it DID NOT hit our special “light snow” threshold of 0.5”. This is an optional snow plowing/shoveling service residents can sign up for at additional costs per time. The range of snowfall totals to hit this special snow service is 0.5” - 0.99”. Later in the day into the evening of Thursday, 1/9 - the decision was made not to attend to any of the special plowing for residential driveways. And no salt was done (if you are signed up for driveway salt) at this point because we had so much down from recent previous events.

BUT - as Thursday night into Friday 1/10 went along, we continued to get more and more “snow globe” snow showers, and actually some of the showers started to produce another dusting of snow on top of what just fell. By Friday afternoon of 1/10, the snow showers started to wrap up, yes, but measuring everything total was only adding up to 0.5” of snow, which technically hits that special “light snow” category, but there was not 0.5” in all areas, it was case by case.

Therefore, in the end, on Friday, January 10th, it was a case by case plowing - if you are signed up for our “light snow” special plowing, we may have plowed and/or shoveled you. Some we did not, just depended on what was on each driveway. Also, if you are signed up for salting of your driveway, we did apply salt to more of the driveways with bigger inclines, or longer private drives. Not all driveways were salted. But we did plow/shave off the coating of snow off of most driveways before we added salt. It was a complicated situation, and we checked on everything and used our judgement and did what we thought was best whether it was just plowing/shoveling, or plowing/shoveling/salting, or just salting.

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February

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Monday, February 3 : 0.25” - 0.5” to about an inch

We had a disturbance riding along a thin band of temperature gradient. North/South cut-off was extreme, especially to the south. The cut off ran right through the twin cities and through many residential accounts C N’R takes care of. We could not measure an inch, in fact it was tough to find even a half inch. More on that below.

Snow/sleet mix kept the snow totals down. It lasted basically from about 2am – 9am off and on, as we sat on the very bottom edge of the snow band, and as the snow band fluxuated a bit, then it turned off or turned on the snow/sleet again.

We measured – southern EP = barely 0.25” – no work done in this area other than some salting – did not hit any threshold for snow removal

Western EP – Maybe about 0.3” – no work done in this area other than some salting – did not hit any threshold for snow removal

North of HWY 5 = we were measuring anywhere from 0.3”-0.5” through Shorewood, Minnetonka, and then as you head east of 494, it got more solid and more thick where it was about 0.6”. This did tigger our “light snow” threshold of a half inch or more. Driveways were plowed if you are signed up for this extra service, and driveways were salted as necessary. The mix of sleet with the snow, and even freezing rain at times did create slick conditions on driveways, plus the temp dropped hard the following night, so applying salt prior to temps dropping was important.

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Wednesday, February 5 : FRZ drizzle followed by a coating of snow 0.2"

This was a system that was advertised as dropping 1-2” of snow that became a freezing drizzle system for the Twin Cities while the snow stayed to the north. Frz drizzle with temps at 20-25 degrees spells big ice problems, and we had that. Then, the back part of the system had a snow band that swept through and put a coating of snow down. The FRZ drizzle happened from about 8pm until 11:30pm on 2/5, then the snow band came through right around midnight.

C N’R only salted driveways in need. No plowing.

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Saturday, February 8 : 4.5"

Finally, a “normal” snow event. This event brought snow to our area starting around 6-7am on Saturday morning, February 8th, and ended right around 12pm / 1pm - ish. It dropped a very light powdery 4-5” across all accounts that C N’R takes care of.

It was slow to accumulate in the beginning, and we were wondering how much we would end up getting, so we waiting until it was about down snowing (around noon) before we started plowing all residential driveways. All shoveling and plowing was completed by about 7pm that evening. Salting was completed when needed, but recently in the past, we have been using a lot of salt, so we spared where we could. Also, this snowfall was such a dry/powdery snowfall that it was not that slippery.

We did have one breakdown that affected a couple routes, but we managed to get through it and getting around to all customers within 7 hours is commendable.

End of drives were checked on once we were done plowing for the mess the City Plow makes.

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Friday, February 14 : 2.5"

On Valentines day, we had snow that moved in during the afternoon. Most of the accumulation occurred between about 2pm-10pm. After 10pm, it became “snow globe” snow showers for the remainder of the night, and even well into the next day - Saturday, February 15th. The main accumulation of snow was about 2.5”. And then you add in the “snow globe” snow, there is argument that it could be 3-3.5” - but plowing wise, it stayed under 3” total for billing purposes.

All residential driveways and sidewalks were plowed/shoveled through the night into Saturday morning. Work that was completed earlier had more of a dusting on it later because of the “snow globe” snow showers.

Salt was used on some driveways in need, more inclines than anything else, otherwise this was not a very slipper snowfall with very low moisture content that is tough to melt with salt kernels.

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March

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Wednesday, March 5 : Wind driven, heavy drifting 7-8” of heavy/wet snow

SNOWFALL TIME LINE:
- Wednesday, 3/5 = daytime rain showers, and drizzle most of the day.
- Showers & drizzle became more steadier rain late in the afternoon
- A change over to sleet/ice pellets started to occur after 5pm
- Between 5pm-8pm - rain, sleet, ice pellets mixed with snow, back and forth
- Became mostly snow between about 8pm-10pm
- Snow fell pretty steadily and heavy at time through the entire night and into Thursday morning, 3/6. Technically, the more “accumulating” snow ended about 8am-9am, but all snow showers that wrapped behind did not end until 10am-11am-ish
- WIND really kicked in overnight which was a huge factor going through much of the next day as well
- Total snowfall varied from place to place, but most driveways were holding 7-8” + totals

OPERATION NOTES:
- C N’R had 2 breakdowns. This did delay some routes unfortunately. Also, the heaviness of the snow made it take much longer to get through everyone.
- All residents were plowed 2x, shoveled 1x.
- Shoveling was completed either as we plowed, or by a second crew - only 1x we shoveled residential sidewalks.
- End of driveway clearing was a big factor as well, so as we were plowing and/or wrapping up plowing, we were doing our best to follow the City plows around, and some cities were super slow.
- Minimum salt was used due to higher sun angle melting compacted snow pretty quickly
- Speaking of compacted snow, this type of snow “adheres” to the pavement/cement. Back dragging snow was difficult and did not scrape very well. This is out of our control. We only can do our best.

 

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April

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Late on Tuesday, 4/1 into early Wednesday morning 4/2, we had a mixed bag of snow turn to a heavy snow with warm ground temperatures. It put down a layer of slush on driveways. Some colder driveways (facing north) held more snow than warmer driveways (face south). As we made a decision on whether to plow or not, we had several factors going on.

1 - It is April, so we are now “off-contract” (Nov 1 - Mar 31).
2 - If we are going to plow in April, off-contract, it has to be a significant snowfall. This event was far from significant. Why risk it? (See #3 below)
3 - The ground is thawed and very wet, if we had to plow, we will likely do more damage than good.
4 - After the snow moved through and accumulated a half inch to an inch of rain was in the forecast a few hours later. Why plow when the rain is going to melt it anyways along side the ground temps being warm, and along side air temperatures are warmer than freezing. No icing going on
5 - C N’R as a service provider, would have love to “take care” of their customers for an event like this that is so close to the regular contract months (Nov 1 - Mar 31) - but trying to be clean with no grass damage is a huge challenge this time of the season when the ground is thawed. It also is tough for the beginning of the season when we get our first snow without the ground being frozen.

With all this said, no plowing was done, but we wanted to explain here briefly. Some City plows came out (not many) - and we did go clear the end of driveways of some residents because this was so thick and heavy/slushy, the City Plow put some large “snowballs” laying on the end of the driveway.

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