Residential Winter Summaries

CN'R Lawn N' Landscape - Snow Plowing and Removal As we progress through our Minnesota Winter, C N' R will post snow removal summaries for residential properties in this location. Be sure to check back here often as the snow flies for snow plowing, salting and shoveling updates.

Recent Update -

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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November

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December

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.

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.

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.